NEWS

Massive fuel scam discovered

What officials described yesterday as an illegal «small oil refinery» that served to convert lightly taxed heating fuel into high-value diesel for vehicles has been discovered in northern Greece. According to a Finance Ministry statement, Financial Crimes Squad (SDOE) officers working on a tip-off discovered the installations in the Serres prefecture in eastern Macedonia. The statement did not say when and exactly where the discovery was made, nor whether any arrests had been made. SDOE officers who raided the site found 11 storage tanks capable of holding over 500,000 liters of fuel, the ministry statement said. However, the tanks only contained some 15,000 liters of discolored heating fuel – which is colored pink to prevent such fraud – 15,000 liters of pink heating fuel and 10,000 liters of various fuel types awaiting discoloring. Heating fuel is taxed at about a tenth of the rate levied on diesel. All the fuel was confiscated, together with chemicals used in the discoloring process.

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