Plenty of people daydream about skipping work. One man in Spain went a few steps further. He didn’t turn up to work for SIX WHOLE YEARS. And, somehow, no one noticed!

A Spanish civil servant, who has since been found out, has been fined 27,000 euros for his truancy. The man, named Joaquin Garcia, claims that there was very little work for him to do at his office but rather than say anything, he continued to claim his salary in order to support his family.

The situation came about when Garcia was given a job at a public water company. He was set up with an office in a municipal building in Cadiz. City officials didn’t hear anything from Garcia but thought he was reporting to the water company. Needless to say, he wasn’t.

The reason he was caught? Garcia was about to receive an award for his long service before enquiries brought to light what he had been doing.

A legal case was launched against him in 2010, alleging that he hadn’t worked a single day since 2004. In his defense, Garcia claimed that he had been to the office but had no work to do.

He has now lost the legal battle and will have to pay the fine, which is the maximum permitted by law. He avoided being fired by virtue of the fact that he had already retired.

Reports say that Garcia used the spare time to become an expert in the philosophy of Spinoza.

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