Pharmacist convicted of defauding social insurance fund of €300,000

A former pharmacist in Thessaloniki has been found guilty of defrauding a public social insurance fund of €300,000 by issuing fake prescriptions over a three-year period.

A court sentenced the 75-year-old defendant to nine years' imprisonment but suspended the punishment pending appeal and upon the payment of €5,000 bail.

The court heard that insurance fund auditors found that the pharmacist had issued hundreds of prescriptions in the names of insured people from 2006 to 2009 who not only did not receive the medicines but were not even examined by doctors in the first place.

They also found that most of the prescriptions were issued to addresses in neighboring prefectures, some up to 80 kilometers away from the pharmacy, which was based in eastern Thessaloniki.

The defense said the pharmacist, who is facing serious health problem and lives abroad, denied...