MANY people have enjoyed the fruits of someone else's undeclared labour, whether buying a cheap DVD from a street-seller or paying the gardener in cash. In a poll of the EU's 27 member countries, Denmark and the Netherlands are the (self-confessed) biggest users of the underground economy. In both countries 27% of respondents said they had acquired goods or services in the past year which they thought involved undeclared work. Less than 10% of people in Germany and Britain admitted acquiring something on the sly, below the EU average of 11%. Cypriots are the most law-abiding.

AP