Greek authorities have fined a young man with 73,607 euros for the “unnecessary mobilization” of the Coast Guard that organized a big Search and Rescue operation to locate him. The man was reported “missing”, while he was in fact at a beach bar.
It was other people who reported him as “missing”, when the 27-year-old snorkeler went for an evening swim and was not seen there after.
The people alerted the authorities and a big SAR with boats, frogmen, and even a helicopter was launched. They searched for him for 20 hours.
The operation was cancelled when the “missing” man was located at a beach bar nearby. He was even following the progress of the rescue operation.
As the law passed a few years ago provides that unnecessary mobilization of authorities is to be fined, authorities filed against him.
A prosecutor investigated the incident that occurred in the sea area of Lambiri near Patras in NW Peloponnese last summer and ordered him to pay the heavy fine of 73,000 euros.
The man has already appealed to the Court for the cancellation of the fine, with his lawyer telling ANT1 TV, that his client is not responsible for the Search and Rescue operation.
“He had gone for an evening swim, then left, some people thought there was a problem and notified the authorities,” the lawyer stated.
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There is something rotten in the state of Greece. The Greek “authorities” are unable to identify which institutions and/or persons are responsible for the deaths in the Tempe disaster, but they are able to blame a possible victim (who was not actually missing) for the cost of mounting a search and rescue mission. Additionally, they find it reasonable to expect someone to be able to pay a fine of 74,000 euros, which on an income of 800 euros month is obviously impossible every to pay. My suggestion is that all the public prosecutors in Greece need to be examined for brain damage and professional ability, and given early retirement if defective. Given that Greece will then have precisely zero public proscutors, there is a need for a rapid training programme and proper professional examinations and continuous monitoring of performance.
Of course, Mitsotakis will do nothing: this is his standard response to all of Greece’s structural problems. Why bother solving difficult problems, when you can just collect large amounts of money for being an ***hole?