Gas station owner fined over 200 mln euros
The Financial Crimes Squad (SDOE) on Monday imposed a fine of 202.4 million euros on the owner of a gas station in Siteia, Crete, over charges that he illegally traded in more than 103 million liters of heating oil from January to May 2011.
The Panhellenic Federation of Fuel Station Owners and Oil Traders (POPEK) dismissed he charges, saying that if they hold true, then the particular gas station owner is responsible for selling 5 percent of all the heating oil used in the country that year.
POPEK attributed the case to a fault in the Hephaestus system, designed by the Finance Ministry to monitor motor and heating fuel sales in an effort to clamp down on illegal trade.
The association representing gas station owners also said that SDOE has imposed fines against 205 gas station on Crete alone, 34 of which are for over 100,000 euros.
