An Italian man who wanted a coronavirus vaccine certificate without actually having the jab tried to play the system by presenting health workers with a fake arm, an official said.

Despite the realistic skin colour, nobody was fooled by the silicone limb, and the man — in his 50s — was reported to local police following the incident in Biella, northwest Italy.

“The case borders on the ridiculous, if it were not for the fact we are talking about a gesture of enormous gravity,” the head of the Piedmont regional government, Albert Cirio, said in a statement, according to AFP.