Niece of ‘dead man’ she wheeled into bank insists he was alive when they went in

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The niece of the ‘dead man’ who she wheeled into a bank insists he was alive when they got there.

Videos and images went viral last week as a seemingly deceased bloke was taken into a bank in Brazil to sign off on a loan.

Érika de Souza Vieira Nunes was filmed by staff who became suspicious as she took a hold of the back of his head to stop it from swaying.

The woman could be seen holding a pen between Paulo Braga’s fingers and attempting to sign off on a loan for a reported 17,000 reais (£2,600).

Staff told Nunes the man didn’t ‘look well at all’ as they commented on him being ‘very pale’ and said they didn’t think it was ‘legal’.

She spoke to him as staff raised concerns. (X/@realengotv)

However, she continued to run with it and said: “He’s like that,” before saying to him: “If you’re not well, I can take you to hospital. Do you want to go back to the hospital again?”

But he certainly wasn’t well, as it is believed he had been dead for two hours.

An autopsy found Braga had died due to ‘bronchoaspiration and heart failure’.

However, as reported by local media, Nunes’ lawyers say she is an ‘honest person’ and in a request for her to be released during investigations, they add: “The evidence is based solely on a public outcry that Erika had taken a corpse to the bank to try to carry out a loan scam, which is not true.”

The 42-year-old was arrested at the scene as bank staff called the paramedics who confirmed he was dead.

Claiming to be Braga’s niece and caregiver, she ‘responds for vilifying a corpse and for attempted theft’.

The body was in a wheelchair. (X/@realengotv)

At a custody hearing, judge Rachel Assad da Cunha said: “The question is to define whether the elderly person, in those conditions, even if they were alive, could express their will. If he was already dead, obviously, it wouldn't be possible.

"But even if he was alive, it was clear that he was unable to express any will, being in a total state of incapacity.”

Nunes’ defence maintains that the 68-year-old was alive when he arrived at the bank while investigating officer, Fábio Luiz Souza told breakfast news program Bom Dia Rio: “She knew he was dead … he had been dead for at least two hours.”

Ana Carla de Souza Correa, who is representing the woman, previously told reporters her lawyers ‘believe in Érika’s innocence.”

But police chief Souza said: “Anyone who sees that [video] can see the person was dead.”