Teacher fakes family deaths to go driving
Friday, September 14, 2001
A Japanese teacher has been suspended for pretending relatives had died so he could take time off to go driving.

The 42-year-old took 25 days paid bereavement leave by claiming grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles had passed on.

He admitted using his days off to go on long drives and sleep off hangovers.

The unnamed teacher has been suspended for three months and ordered to pay back 570,000 yen (about £3,250) in wages.

The bereavement days were taken over a six year period, but officials became suspicious when he made three requests in four months.

The teacher, from a school in Kawasaki, admitted the scam when he was asked to provide death certificates.

A spokesman for the Fukuoka Prefectural Board of Education told the Mainichi Daily News: "It probably made it easier for him to find a fill-in if he told colleagues a relative had died."

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