Man Faked a Coma For Two Years
A con artist who pretended to be in a coma every time he wanted to get out of court apparently managed to keep the charade going for more than two years.
Police in South Wales say 47-year-old Alan Knight—who had also been illegally living off benefits by pretending to be a quadriplegic—had spent about three years conning his neighbor out of $65,000 when he came up on their radar.
He told authorities he had injured his spine in a garage door accident, paralyzing him from the neck down and causing seizures that occasionally put him into a coma. His wife played along with the charade, "caring" for him at the hospital and pushing his wheelchair into court.
But the imaginative conman got busted after the court was presented with CCTV footage of Knight—un-paralyzed, very-much-awake—driving and shopping at a supermarket.
His doctors also reportedly discovered something was amiss when their coma patient began "eating, wiping his face and even writing."
Detectives also note Knight is kind of an asshole:
Jim Davis, prosecuting, who did not open the case, said another aggravating feature was that Knight had made a "totally false" attempt to blame his own son for the offences.
