Man dresses as dead mother in Mrs Doubtfire scheme to collect pension

Tuesday, 25 November 2025 14:51

The man dressed up with lipstick, a 1970s style blouse and a pearl necklace when going to the Registry Office in the small town of Borgo Virgilio

An Italian man has been busted trying to dress up as his deceased mother to fraudulently collect her pension.

The man, a former nurse who was unemployed, dressed up with lipstick, a 1970s-style blouse and a pearl necklace when going to the Registry Office in the small town of Borgo Virgilio in northern Italy.

He was trying to renew the identity card of Graziella Dall'Oglio, his mother.

A photo of Graziella Dall'Oglio (left) and the image of her son attempting to impersonate her (right). The son collected 53,000 euros ($94,000) from her pension in the three years she was dead.

However, she died three years ago, and her son has instead been collecting her pension the entire time, racking up nearly €53,000 ($94,000), according to reports in Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera.

It has now been called the "Mrs. Doubtfire scandal" after the 1993 hit movie starring the late Robin Williams.

In a grim turn, when authorities busted the 56-year-old man and searched the home of his mother, they found her mummified body.

Dall'oglio had not been heard from in years, according to reports.

The mayor of the town, Francesco Aporti, told Corriere Della Sera the scam was exposed after an employee at the registry office noticed some strange things when "Graziella" came to renew her identification, and warned the mayor and police.

"[He was] wearing a suit with a long skirt, lipstick on his lips, nail polish on his hands, jewellery around his neck and hands, old-fashioned earrings," Aporti said.

"But that neck, upon closer inspection, was a bit too thick, and even the wrinkles were strange, the skin on his hands didn't look like the 85-year-old he claimed to be.

"And his voice, feminine yes, but occasionally a few masculine notes escaped."

After comparing photos between the real Dall'Oglio and those of her son posing as her, they realised they had been fooled, and their investigations revealed her son had been filing regular tax returns.

To bring him in, they called the son and said Dall'Oglio needed to present herself to the office to complete the identification process; once the son arrived dressed up as his mother, they took him to a police station, where he admitted his scheme.

They found the body of the mother in the home, with a statement from Italian police saying the body had been wrapped in bedsheets and a sleeping bag.

"She probably died of natural causes, but that will be established by a postmortem," the mayor added.

"It's a very, very sad story, certainly one of great loneliness."

DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. Available on the Apple App Store and Google Play.