Pair charged in IKA medicine scam
A doctor and a pharmacist have been charged on multiple counts of fraud and forgery after allegedly swindling the Social Security Foundation (IKA) out of some 36,000 euros by claiming medicines for bogus patients, it emerged on Wednesday.
According to investigators, the pharmacist would take prescriptions from the doctor, who was employed by IKA, before removing the bar codes from the medicines and submitting them to the fund in order to claim back money.
The scam was uncovered by a speleologist who found a pile of medicines, lacking their bar codes, in a cave near Lavrio, southeastern Attica. Police believe the pharmacist had dumped the drugs there after removing the strips.
The pair is believed to have run the scam for nearly two years.
