Large circuitwhose members were systematically active in illegal issuance of driving licenses and certificates of various types, in Western Attica and Corinthdislocated by Security Forces Internal Affairs Service.

According to ELAS, they were arrested 11 people and in particular the head and three employees of the Directorate of Transport and Communications of the Regional Unit, as well as 7 private individuals, owners and employees of driving schools. It is noted that the file that was formed includes 199 more people, whose details have been identified.

They are charged, as the case may be, with the offenses of forming and joining a criminal organization, false certification and felony forgery, bribery of an employee by occupation, bribery of an employee by profession and by occupation, breach of duty by complicity and serially, as well as for violence against officials and judicial persons.

The investigation of the case started from a complaint, according to which, in Corinth, employees of the local Directorate of Transport and Communications and owners of driving schools with their partners, provided prospective drivers with driving licenses of each category, as well as various types of certificates, for money, following irregular procedure during theory and practical examination.

A months-long investigation followed, as part of a related preliminary examination. From the evaluation of the collected data, it emerged the existence of an operationally structured criminal organization, with continuous action, whose members, at least since June 2022, proceeded with the irregular issuance of driving licenses, as well as certificates of professional ability or professional competence or transport of dangerous goods, without following the procedure required by law, in at least 194 cases of candidates.

The defendants, according to ELAS, in order to achieve their goal, followed, with few exceptions, a specific course of action, in theoretical training and depending on the driver’s license. Specifically, they indicated to the examinees the correct answers, directly selected the correct answers themselves, divided the correct answers into small pieces of paper, which were carefully hidden in the candidates’ examination sheets, replaced the candidates’ examination sheet with another containing the correct answers, while also allowing the candidates not to appear in the written test and be considered successful.

As regards the test of qualifications and behavior (course), a typical few minutes’ presence of the examinees before the committee was sufficient, while there were also cases when the candidates did not appear during this test and were considered successful.

Regarding the cost of issuing driving licenses, it varied depending on the category of license requested, as well as the procedure to be followed. It is clarified that the amount received by the school varied in the event that a third party mediated between the driving school and the examinee.

The amounts, however, ranged, depending on the permit, from 1,200 to 2,500 euros.

The payment of the money for the issuance of the driver’s license was made by the candidate drivers in sections. Initially with an advance payment, while the remaining amount that had been agreed and which was intended for the employees involved, was paid on the day of the examination. In other cases, when the candidate lived in another region, the advance payment and the necessary supporting documents were sent through courier companies, KTEL, bank or express payment companies. It is noted that the further distribution of monetary exchanges to the employees of the Directorate of Transport and Communications was done by the owners of the driving schools.

Regarding the police operation to dismantle the circuit, it was carried out on the morning of Friday, March 3, 2023, while pieces of paper and A4 sheets containing answers to exam questions and two bags with similar contents were found and confiscated in a desk drawer in the exam room.

During the ELAS operation, the owner of a driving school, when approached by police officers and informed of their status, boarded a taxi as a driver and drove towards them with the door open, endangering the life of at least one police officer. In this way he managed to escape, but he was arrested yesterday, Saturday, March 4, when he appeared voluntarily at the Public Prosecutor’s Office where his co-accused had been taken.

From the searches carried out in homes and places of business, as well as in the possession of the arrested, the following were found and confiscated: 199,265 euros, 300 US dollars, a number of notebooks and handwritten notes concerning sums of money and candidates’ details, mobile phones and various digital proofs with electronically registered data of candidates and obviously fake confirmations of filing an application for the issuance of a residence permit for third-country nationals.

According to her estimate THE GREEK POLICE, the profits obtained illegally by the members of the criminal organization, as of June 2022, range from 292,800 to 610,000 euros.

As regards the amount of money confiscated, it will be deposited in the Deposit and Loan Fund, while the confirmations of the application for the issuance of a residence permit will be sent to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations for laboratory examination.

Those arrested were taken to the public prosecutor and referred to an investigator.