Italian gynaecologist talks 17-year-old out of abortion so he can deliver baby and sell it for £21,000 Andrea Cozzolino, 57, arrested for suspected corruption and abuse of office He reportedly delivered girl's baby near Naples and sold to childless couple Scheme fell apart when birth mother told authorities she had been 'raped' Dr Andrea Cozzolino, 57, is accused of having persuaded a teenager to have her baby and then selling it to a childless couple for £21,000 An Italian doctor talked a woman out of having an abortion before delivering the baby himself and then selling it on to a childless couple, Italian police say. The gynaecologist, Andrea Cozzolino, 57, is said to have sold the infant to a 54-year-old man and a 48-year-old woman for €25,000 (£21,000) after delivering the student's baby in a hospital near Naples. Cozzolino, who told the teenage mother he would have her baby adopted, was arrested this week on suspicion of corruption and abuse of office. It is alleged that the teenager became pregnant by her student boyfriend and went to Dr Cozzolino to ask him to perform an illegal abortion on her because she did not want her parents to learn she was pregnant. When the doctor said the procedure would cost €6,000, he is believed to have offered to deliver the baby free at the Santa Lucia di San Giuseppe Vesuviano near Naples and put it up for adoption. According to details released by Alessandro Tocco, deputy chief of police in Caserta, where the student is from, Dr Cozzolino went to great lengths to ensure his scheme worked. He made sure the 48-year-old woman was in the same hospital - an exclusive private clinic - at the same time so that the baby boy could be passed to the new family soon after he was born in October 2011. All seemed to have gone to plan until the birth mother discovered a few months later that she had been named on local birth records. To explain her pregnancy she pretended she had been raped, and in the ensuing investigation the couple who bought her baby were tracked down. The boy was then placed with another couple. According to the Independent, detectives tapped the couple's conversations and heard them demanding their money back from the doctor. Dr Cozzolino is said to have blamed the registration upon the birth being registered quickly before he had had time to step in himself. Police in Naples, pictured, discovered the doctor's alleged scam when they bugged conversations between him and the childless couple He is also said to have replied he couldn't repay the cash as he had already used it to pay off gambling debts. Adnkronos news agency said the couple who bought the baby, who it named as Carmela Giordano and Elio Miranda, from Salerno, had been asked to report to police. They, and the birth mother, are reportedly being investigated for alleged breach of Italy's adoption laws. Dr Cozzolino is said to have been suspended by L'Ordine dei Medici medical body pending an investigation.