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The scheme, which operated for years, was finally shut down in 2011 after one of the “blind” was said to have been caught driving his Porsche. Among the cheats receiving the monthly stipend, which cost the government several million euros a year, were a taxi driver and a hairdresser, according to Greek media reports at the time and many foreign news sources which reported the fraud and others involving entitlements with great enthusiasm.

The epicentres of this trickery were from the hamlets of Kalipodo and Kipseli. The communities are a few minutes drive north of the town of Zakynthos where Russian oligarchs and Hollywood royalty tie up their mega yachts across a promenade that is as pretty as any on the Mediterranean Sea.

When I stopped by Kalipodo a few residents were enjoying the evening air and the buzz of cicadas on the balconies of their pastel-coloured homes, which were secluded in a lush maze of leafy palm trees and bougainvillea. None of them was willing to speak with me. However, a few of their neighbours in Zakynthos were.

“This is a beautiful place and people come from all over to admire it, but every village has its donkeys. I don’t feel guilty,” said Spartakos Delianis, who was a mathematics professor before becoming a restaurateur.

“I know from a good friend of mine who grew up in Canada before returning to Greece that your country was built on the rules of Her Majesty. Every country has its own mentality and it has never been the same as that here. What we have is the mentality that rules are made to be broken.”