A 70-year-old Italian man stands accused of pretending to be totally blind for over a century, during which time he collected over one million euros ($1.16 million) in disability payments.

The case of a Vincenza man who unduly received over a million euros in benefits for total blindness over a period of 53 years has once again brought Italy’s verification mechanisms for subsidies and disability payments into the spotlight. The septuagenarian, whose name has not been revealed, had been declared completely blind over five decades ago, following a work-related incident. Since then, he had collected over a million euros, but when the finance police of the Vicenza provincial command conducted cross-checks, something caught their attention, so they decided to follow and video-record him. That’s how they caught him performing gardening work with dangerous tools and carefully checking out produce at the market before buying it.