Doctor 'used silicone fingers' to sign in for colleagues

ERJ staff report (BC)

São Paulo – A Brazilian doctor faces charges of fraud after being caught on camera using fingerprints moulded on “silicone fingers” to sign in for work for absent colleagues, police have told BBC Brasil.

Thaune Nunes Ferreira, 29, was arrested on Sunday for using prosthetic fingers to fool the biometric employee attendance device used at the hospital where she works near São Paulo.

Police said she had six silicone fingers with her at the time of her arrest, three of which have been identified as bearing the fingerprints of co-workers.

The investigation is reported as showing that some 300 public employees in the town, described as ''an army of ghosts'', had been receiving pay without going to work.

A local authority spokesman told BBC Brasil that the ghost public employees “work” mainly in health, education and security.

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