Austria - Pensioner went off the rails

[John Ashworth]

Pensioner went off the rails and into hospitals

Kate Connolly in Berlin
Saturday January 12, 2008
The Guardian

A homeless man hoodwinked hospitals in Austria into admitting him so that he could get a hot meal and a bed for the night more than 100 times in three years.

The 59-year-old Viennese pensioner toured the country's hospitals and clinics, often citing illnesses which were hard to diagnose to ensure the longest possible stay. "I came up with the idea of living in hospital in the cold winter of 2004-5," he told the police. "It's so wonderfully warm and you get something to eat."

The case of Reinhard D, which is believed to have cost the sate around €100,000 (£75,000), titillated some Austrians, while prompting others to ask why it was so easy to swindle the system.

Following a two-year odyssey which saw him admitted to hospital on more than 100 separate occasions, he was rumbled by a doctor in the Steiermark region, who noticed his story was full of contradictions.

Reinhard D had performed a trick that had worked many times. He pulled the emergency cord on a train as it entered the town of Mürzzuschlag, telling railway staff that he had fallen and lost consciousness. For the umpteenth time after recounting such a tale, he was taken by ambulance to the local hospital. Only on this occasion, the disbelieving doctor called the police.

The man told police he had variously pretended to have lost consciousness, or faked problems with his kidneys.

After Vienna hospitals started treating him just as an outpatient, Reinhard D went looking for unsuspecting hospitals in other parts of the country.

For the time being Reinhard D will no longer have to worry about where he will get his next bed and meal - he is in a prison cell, awaiting trial.