A SHAMELESS conman has been jailed after persuading his friend to freeze his own legs with dry ice so they could be chopped off in a sick insurance scam.
Liao Jianfu, 26, talked his friend into deliberately maiming himself in a bid to pocket huge payouts.
The twisted plot unfolded in Taipei, northern Taiwan, on January 9.
Liao, who studied insurance at university, targeted a former high school classmate.
In 2023, he convinced the man, identified only as Zhang, to take out multiple insurance policies with massive pay-outs.
Liao then told Zhang to stick his lower legs in dry ice for around 10 hours to cause severe frostbite.
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Zhang later had both lower legs amputated and filed insurance claims totalling nearly a million pounds.
Insurance companies flagged the claims as suspicious and alerted police.
Zhang and Liao claimed the injuries were caused by frostbite during a motorcycle trip to Yangmingshan and Tamsui in January 2023.
Investigators found temperatures that day ranged from 6C to 17C, nowhere near cold enough to cause such damage.
They also discovered Zhang had taken out several insurance policies just days before the alleged trip.
Hospital photos showed the injuries were neat and symmetrical, with no sock or shoe marks, pointing to them being deliberately inflicted.
The final nail in the coffin came when police found a video on Liao’s phone showing Zhang soaking his legs in dry ice.
Zhang was jailed for two years, with the sentence suspended for two years, while Liao was locked up for six.
Cops also uncovered Liao’s involvement in another suspected insurance scam the year before.
In 2022, Liao allegedly brought alcohol, a lighter and a gas torch to the home of a university classmate surnamed Wu.
Wu was reportedly told to wear alcohol-soaked clothes and squat over an electric stove before being set on fire.
He suffered second and third-degree burns over 54 per cent of his body.
Wu’s mum, who worked in the insurance industry, later applied for compensation on his behalf.
The student claimed the incident was part of a traditional fire-walking ritual but could not explain why his clothes were drenched in alcohol.
Liao, Wu and Wu’s mother were prosecuted for offences including fraud and aiding and abetting self-harm causing serious injury.
Most insurers refused to pay out because of the suspicious injuries.
Wu later sued one company for refusing to cough up more than NTD 6million (£141,000) and the case is still ongoing.
In the UK, a surgeon froze his own legs to amputate them in a twisted sex fantasy.
Neil Hopper opened up about his so-called battle with sepsis on This Morning – claiming he lost his limbs as a result of the illness.
But the consultant vascular surgeon was jailed for 32 months for fraud totalling more than £466,000 after causing his injuries himself.
Truro Crown Court heard Hopper used dry ice to freeze his legs to the extent they were no longer viable, requiring amputation.
This was an ambition of his and something he had a sexual interest in.