A whole island pretending to be blind to get benefits, 8,500 pensioners who faked being aged over 100 and lawyers who claim to earn just €12,000

A whole island pretending to be blind to get benefits, 8,500 pensioners who faked being aged over 100 and lawyers who claim to earn just €12,000: New book reveals how Greeks cheated THEMSELVES into ruin

 dailymail

• James Angelos' book looks at widespread tax evasion and benefit fraud 
• Includes case of the island where 498 people pretended to be blind 
• Also reveals how super-rich bought camoflage for pools to avoid tax 
• Greece is on the brink of collapse as it decides whether to reject EU bailout

By Flora Drury For Mailonline

Published: 13:44 GMT, 3 July 2015 | Updated: 15:51 GMT, 3 July 2015

Greece in teetering on the brink of ruin - and it is hard not to feel sympathy for the pensioners crying in the street and the mothers facing empty supermarket shelves. 

Yet those reading a new book may find themselves feeling a little less compassionate towards the Greeks. It reveals an eye-popping catalogue of benefits scams and tax avoidance schemes that have robbed the public purse.

James Angelos' The Full Catastrophe: Travels among the New Greek Ruins lays bare the corruption which filtered through all levels of society - from the islanders who pretended to be blind, to the families who forgot to register their parents' death and the doctors who 'earn' just €12,000 a year - yet live in Athens' most exclusive neighbourhood. 

It was the rumours of an 'island of the blind' which first bought Angelos, a journalist, to Greece in 2011.

He had heard that on Zakynthos, something like two per cent of the population were registered blind.

All was not quite how it seemed, however, and it transpired that 61 of the 680 'blind' residents were quite happily driving around the island.

In fact, an astonishing 498 of those 680 were not blind at all - or even partially sighted. 

But being 'blind' had its advantages - in particular, the €724 paid in benefits once every two months, and a reduction in utility bills. 

It was a scam which could be traced back to one ophthalmologist and one official, which was estimated to have cost the country €9 million.

And, as Angelos discovered, it was only the tip of the iceberg.

How big is the problem of disability benefits fraud, Angelos asked the then-deputy health minister Markos Bolaris.

'Very big,' came the accurate, but short, reply.

Indeed, when those claiming disabilities were asked to present themselves at government offices so records could be updated, 36,000 failed to do so.

That translated to an immediate saving for the government of €100m a year. 

But the fraud was certainly not confined to just disability benefits.

When the government chose to take a closer look at who they were paying pensions to, they found a slightly suspicious 8,500 pensioners had surpassed the milestone age of 100.

An even closer look revealed, 40,000 pension claims were fraudulent. It seems people were forgetting to register their loved ones' deaths.

It's not that these scams were not known about before, of course. 

A Daily Mail investigation in 2011 revealed the subway system was essentially free for the five million residents of Athens - because, with no barriers, it relied on an honesty system which few were honest enough to use.

It described street after street of opulent mansions and villas, surrounded by high walls and with their own pools, which, on paper, were the homes of virtual paupers.

They were all allowed to declare their own income for tax purposes - and officially, they were only earning €12,000 - or a paltry £8,500 - a year, below the tax threshold. 

Apparently, only 5,000 people admitted to earning more than £90,000 a year - prompting one economist to describe Greece as a ‘poor country full of rich people’.

The lengths these doctors, lawyers and businessmen would go to to hide their wealth from the government was, it has to be said, impressive.

According to official records, just over 300 homes in Athens' most exclusive neighbourhood had swimming pools, and had paid the resulting tax for such a luxury.

But when the government decided to have a look on Google Earth, it became clear these residents hadn't been totally honest.

The real figure for swimming pools in the area is believed to be closer to 20,000.

But instead of coming clean, there was a boom in sales of camouflage tarpaulins to conceal their existence from the tax inspectors flying over the gardens. 

And then there are the tales which seem to be more down to incompetence, rather than actual fraud.

In particular, there is the tale of treasury employee Savvas Saltouridis, who used an Uzi submachine gun to murder the mayor of his Greek mountain town in 2009, who remained on the municipal payroll for years afterwards - even though he was languishing in jail.

He was taking advantage of the complex disciplinary system

Angelos, then working for the Wall Street Journal, was told by retired clerk Apostolos Tsiakiris, who took over as mayor after the killing: 'You can't be a murderer and keep getting paid.

'That doesn't happen in any other government.' 

But what do when so many are cheating the system? It is estimated tax evasion alone might be costing the country as much as €20billion a year in lost revenue, while years of benefit fraud will certainly have added up.

But when Angelos suggested punishing those who tried to play the system, he was given a straight forward - if depressing - answer.

'If you start putting people in jail, maybe you'll have to put half of Greece in jail,' an official said.

• James Angelos' The Full Catastrophe: Travels among the New Greek Ruins is available to buy on Amazon.

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 ltn自由時報

 

裝窮假盲搞垮希臘 「到處都是有錢人的貧窮國家」

 

希臘觀光部長安德瑞迪斯呼籲今年想去希臘的上百萬英國觀光客，盡可能使用信用卡，避免商家逃漏稅。圖為在雅典憲法廣場遊蕩的外國觀光客。（路透）

2015-07-05  07:43 〔即時新聞／綜合報導〕希臘金融體系崩盤，人民似乎是最大受害者，但《華爾街日報》員工安吉洛（James Angelos）寫的新書《全面大災禍：走過希臘新廢墟》卻揭露了希臘國庫每年短缺200億歐元（約新台幣6946億）的秘辛，原來是希臘人民對於逃漏稅 和詐領福利金有極高的熱誠。
《聯合報》報導，希臘人如何能讓國庫少收這麼多錢，安吉洛舉例說明，小島札欽鐸斯（Zakynthos）盲人居 民有2％共680名，然而竟有498人視力健全，每人每兩個月盜領724歐元（約新台幣2萬5144元），水電瓦斯減免。此外，在希臘那些住在泳池豪宅的 富豪，竟然都是貧民身分，全國只有5000人承認年所得超過9萬英鎊。
有經濟學家說希臘是「到處都是有錢人的貧窮國家」。也有希臘官員說：「若要抓人坐牢，恐怕要將一半希臘人都逮捕入獄」。