Fraud against the public in order to collect the excise duty on fuel which is returned to the fishermen, without buying fuel, was devised by boat owners in Stavros and Asprovalta, in Thessaloniki, in collaboration with petrol station owners and with the main defendants a customs officer and a port officer.

The case was solved after a months-long investigation by the police officers of the internal affairs service of the security forces of Northern Greece who arrested 17 people, who are expected to be taken to the prosecutor today.

Those involved are accused of taking advantage of what is in force with fishermen’s oil as the amount of excise duty on fuel is returned to the beneficiaries.

Thus, according to information from Voria.gr, it is alleged that for at least two years they pretended to fill their fishing boats with fuel and collect the money.

They justified the purchase of the fuel with invoices they received from seven fuel stations and were fictitious. The main defendant is a customs official who appears to sign that he was present at the feeding of the vessels, as required by the legal framework, and verified the quantities allegedly being pumped into the tanks of the fishing vessels. In fact, evidence in the case file from the conversations blocked by the incorruptible bug indicated that the customs officer collected sums of up to 1,000 euros for the certificates he gave. On the other hand, the port officer allegedly collected much smaller amounts, up to 100 euros, to consider the bridge tariff, which concerns the fishermen’s fuel, as provided by the law.

Characteristically, in cases where other customs officials were actually present in the fueling process and doing their work, the defendants, after filling the tanks of the fishing vessels, then emptied them, after ensuring that the customs officer had left, and used the fuel for others aims. Sources of Voria.gr said that of the seven arrested boat owners, only one of them went fishing professionally.

The voluminous case file that was formed concerns the investigation that began in 2021 and according to the first data the virtual invoices found exceed 200,000 euros in value, while correspondingly are the sums accused of misappropriating the boat owners who appeared as fishermen and collected huge sums from the refund of excise duty on fuel. The charges faced by the prosecuting authorities are the formation of a criminal organization, fraud against the public, bribery and bribery of an official, non-payment of VAT, illegal refund of excise duty on fuel and issuance of fictitious invoices.