Former police officer was sentenced to 7 years and 4 months in prison for fraud by buying and selling cars through ads posted by the victims on a well-known used vehicle sales website.

The Three-Member Court of Criminal Appeals of Thessaloniki found him guilty of fraud and using a forged document, recognizing him as a mitigating factor for good behavior after the commission of his act, while deciding to release him until the case is examined in the second instance.

Apart from the police officer, who has now retired, since the case concerned 2018, the court, with the same decision, sentenced the paddock owner to 9 years and 5 months in prison, suspending in his case the execution of the sentence until the Court of Appeal. Four people were acquitted in the case and referred to be tried at the bench of the same court.

According to the verdict of the judges, the amount of the fraud was determined at 126,000 euros. The indictment included a total of 13 complaints in the cities of Volos, Thessaloniki, Kavala, etc., but for some of them the accused were acquitted for formal reasons.

According to the same indictment, the persons involved identified their victims from advertisements they posted on the Internet and, after agreeing with the prospective sellers on the purchase price and repayment terms, sent them via e-mail or online application fake bank receipts for the amounts corresponding to the alleged sales. When they acquired the ownership of the vehicles, they resold them to third parties for new prices, but using the information of the defrauded owners so that the traffic licenses coincided with their information.