Police dig up Polish corpse scam

WARSAW, Poland -- Emergency medical workers in Poland have been trading in human corpses, police say.

In some cases, it is feared patients may have been poisoned so the suspects could claim money from undertakers.

Police confirmed a press report that said funeral parlours in Lodz had paid up to $450 for notification of death.

The report, in the best-selling Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper, alleged that medical staff might have facilitated death to collect the reward.

Gazeta's front-page article on Wednesday, which sparked a media outcry, said ambulances sometimes delayed arriving at a patient's home and alleged that some victims had been injected with poison to cause death.

Police are considering exhuming bodies of people who died in ambulances to check for traces of poison.

Poland's social security system allots about $976 for funeral expenses after death, allowing undertakers to clear a profit even after paying the alleged bribes.

Lodz police spokesman Jaroslaw Berger told Reuters: "Months of work by police has confirmed signs of unlawful and inhumane acts by emergency first aid workers and funeral parlours."

Ryszard Lewandowski, a former chief of the city's ambulance service, confirmed he was aware of sales of information about recently deceased patients, but said claims of murder were false.

Lewandowski told PAP news agency: "We were talking with lawyers about whether selling information about death was a criminal activity.

"Perhaps it may only be of interest to tax authorities who seek untaxed income."

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