A rather uncommon case of counterfeiting came under the radar of the Greek Financial Police. The on line portal of financial newspaper naftemporiki reports (in Greek) that approximately 7 tons of counterfeit paint were confiscated by the police together with more than 250 empty paint canisters (buckets) bearing the trademarks of well known paint producers at the premises of a paintshop in Greece. Based on the report, the owner of the shop mixed genuine paint products with other materials (this blogger simply does not want to know what and dreads on the possibility of health risks) and then filled empty canisters bearing the trademarks of producers of genuine goods.

The potential profit from this activity is estimated at 19.000 EUR, which may not be the size of organized counterfeit crime but makes it worth someone's while. Moreover, there is the issue of unaccounted for VAT to the detriment of Greek State proceeds.