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An Italian man has been caught impersonating his deceased mother to collect her pension.

According to Metro, the 57-year-old successfully claimed £50,000 ($116,847.50) a year in benefits after he failed to report his mother’s death in 2022.

Mayor Francesco Aporti explained to Corriere della Sera the fraud was foiled when the man was made to physically visit the local registry office and renew her identification card.

While the man had gone to great lengths to mimic his late mother, “Graziella Dall’Oglio’s” masculine voice quickly threw staff off.

“He entered the municipal offices at a slow pace, he was wearing a suit with a long skirt, he had lipstick on his lips, nail polish on his hands, jewellery on his neck and hands, old style earrings, dark brown hair.

“But that neck, on closer inspection, was a little too big and the wrinkles were also strange, the skin of the hands did not look like the one of the 85-year-old he said he was.”

The suspicious civil servants quickly found they could not get in contact with the real Dall’Oglio, spurring a police investigation into the matter.

“They isolated the images from the surveillance cameras and saw that the woman had arrived by car.

“Alarm: the lady doesn’t have a driver’s licence. Then they carried out further investigations and, piece by piece, the picture of this troubling story began to emerge.”

The mummified body of Dall’Oglio was discovered in the basement of her Lombardy home after the full ruse was exposed.

It is believed her death is not suspicious at this stage, but an autopsy has been ordered and the man may face charges for concealing her body.

He is still being investigated for both corpse-tampering and benefit fraud.