Robber guilty of abduction
Convicted bank robber Nikos Palaiocostas was given a further 62 years in jail yesterday after being found guilty of two more holdups and the highly publicized kidnapping of a wealthy businessman. A Thessaloniki court convicted the 47-year-old of raiding a Marinopoulos supermarket in Thessaloniki in 1992 and a branch of Alpha Bank in Katerini in 2005. He was also found guilty of the 1995 abduction of industrialist Alexandros Haitoglou, who was released for 260 million drachmas (763,000 euros). Palaiocostas is suspected of carrying out the kidnapping with his brother Vassilis and another man who has yet to be identified. Palaiocostas was cleared yesterday of two other bank raids. He admitted his part in the Katerini robbery but denied all the other charges. Palaiocostas was arrested in September last year after spending 16 years on the run from authorities following his escape from prison. His brother also broke out of jail last year and is still wanted by police.
