The 45-year-old man who presented himself to a business owner as an alleged employee of the Ministry of Finance and claimed that he could cancel an audit of the tax office in the business if he was bribed, was found guilty by the Three-Member Plenary Court of Thessaloniki.

The accused was given a four-month prison sentence with a three-year suspended sentence and a fine, as he was found guilty of counterfeiting and influence-peddling, while he was acquitted of the fraud charge as the victim who accused him stated in court that he has been financially and morally rehabilitated by the 45-year-old and therefore does not wish to be prosecuted.

It is noted that the court granted him the mitigating circumstance of sincere remorse and as a result the sentence was reduced.

According to the case file, the accused was arrested on April 28 after the 36-year-old shop owner complained about the case in the city centre.

As he told the police, the 45-year-old man contacted him through social media, told him that he was an employee at the Ministry of Finance and that he could mediate in order not to conduct a planned financial audit of his store.

“I received a message that there would be an audit of my shop by a team from the tax department and that I should contact the defendant who was supposed to be the head of the corrupt government officials who would be coming to my business so that he could mediate,” the witness said, adding that he knew the 45-year-old as he used to run a business across the street from his shop, but they did not have a special relationship.

“I was not convinced that he was a government official and I alerted the police who acted immediately and, in fact, during the night they responded swiftly.

The accused, after the complaint, told me that he regretted and was in despair while compensating me for the damage I suffered as I had to close my shop for a day for fear that I would be audited by corrupt government officials,” he noted.

“He presented himself to me as a civil servant – a contract worker at the Ministry of Finance in Athens. He told me that the person in charge is corrupt and is on the take.

He asked for 1,000 euros to prevent the team from coming to the shop and another 1,000 euros to get me off their list, all because he is a ‘friend’, while he had only seen me twice, but he wanted to … mediate,” the witness testified.

The 45-year-old man, who was immediately arrested by the experienced police officers of the Property Rights Protection Department of the Thessaloniki Security Directorate, said he was remorseful in his apology before the court.

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“I don’t know, honestly, how I started this either. I was desperate, I had no sense. I admitted it and regretted it from the first moment and apologised.

I was in a desperate situation, it wasn’t the man’s fault. He knew me as a shop owner. I really don’t know how I thought I was going to convince him. I’ve never done it before.

Now I’m having a hard time, especially mentally. I have not forgiven myself, I am not sleeping because I realised that I went to hurt a man,” he claimed.