Volunteer firefighters in Sicily started forest fires themselves to then pocket the €10 an hour they earned to put them out, prosecutors in Ragusa have charged.

The shocking claims came to light after Ragusa police charged a team of 15 volunteer firefighters with fraud, with some among them also facing arson charges.

The team under suspicion always happened to be the closest ones to fires, ensuring they were assigned - and paid for - the task of putting them out

According to prosecutors, the rogue firefighters called in false alarms on emergency hotline 115, with their ringleader also setting trees alight so that the team could be called to the scene to put them out.

Police were alerted to the suspected fraud by the head of a local firefighting unit who noticed that one group of volunteers was putting out a disproportionate number of fires, according to news agency ANSA.

Investigators confirmed suspicions by mounting GPS tracking devices on the firefighters' vehicles. The team under suspicion always happened to be the closest ones to fires, ensuring they were assigned - and paid for - the task of putting them out.

The ringleader, ANSA reported, was arrested while going about his day job as a refrigerator repair technician. Co-conspirators have reportedly confessed to their part in the fraud.