Anti-vaxxer Guido Russo, a 57-year-old dentist in the northern Italian city of Biella, had previously been suspended from work for failing to get vaccinated.

Regional authorities said he initially tried to fool a nurse with a fully silicone arm, and then tried to convince her to turn a blind eye to it, the Corriere Della Sera reports.

“The case borders on the ridiculous, were it not for the fact that we are talking about a gesture of enormous gravity, unacceptable in the face of the sacrifice that the pandemic is making our entire community pay, in terms of human lives and social and economic costs,” said Alberto Cirio, president of the Piedmont region.