Fraudster convicted over attempting to blackmail clinic

A Thessaloniki misdemeanors court on Friday handed a three-year suspended sentence to a 53-year-old man who allegedly tried to swindle 70,000 euros from the owner of a private clinic in the northern port city, threatening to discredit the business if it did not pay up.

The 53-year-old, who had claimed to represent the family of a deceased former patient at the clinic, was arrested earlier this week in the act of accepting a 20,000-euro down payment after the clinic owner tipped off police.

The niece of the deceased woman told the court she knew the defendant – he was the husband of a freind of hers – but claimed not to have known anything about the man’s attempted blackmail.

She added that she had not sought any compensation from the clinic despite the “bad conditions” in which her aunt was allegedly treated there.