In Brief
BETS OFF
Bank manager ‘gambled’ 1.2 mln euros in customers’ cash A 58-year-old bank manager has been arrested on the island of Leros, it emerged yesterday, on suspicion of embezzling more than 1.2 million euros of customers’ money. The shortfall was discovered during a routine internal check. The bank manager, who has not been named, allegedly took the money over a period of four months. Police said that the suspect used the cash to feed his gambling habit, betting most of the money at casinos on Rhodes and in Athens. TOLL HIKE Highway fees up on Monday The price of road tolls on the national highway from Elefsina to Patras via Corinth will go up from 2 to 2.80 euros as of midnight on Monday. Olympia Odos, the company that will maintain the highway and collect the tolls over the next 30 years, says it has no immediate plans to introduce more toll stations. It also said that drivers will be able to pay the toll using Attiki Odos’s e-pass as of October. Filopoulos trial The father and brother of Michalis Filopoulos, the Panathinaikos fan killed during a clash between hooligans near Athens last March, claimed in court yesterday that seven Olympiakos fans had beaten and stabbed the 25-year-old. They alleged that the main culprit was a taxi driver. The prosecution also submitted forensic evidence that identified the voice – on mobile phone footage of Filopoulos lying in the road – as being that of one of the suspects. A total of 27 people are being tried in connection with the soccer fan’s death. Touchy neighbor Police were yesterday seeking a resident of Aspropyrgos, northwest of Athens, who allegedly fired a gun at three of his neighbors on Thursday night when they asked him to turn down the volume of the music he was playing. All three were hospitalized but doctors said their injuries were minor and certainly not life-threatening. Officers visited the home of the alleged gunman, but by late last night he had not been apprehended. Ship adrift A Cyprus-flagged cargo ship whose 22-strong crew includes two Greeks was yesterday reportedly in trouble with engine problems in the Gulf of Mexico. It was unclear whether a rescue effort was under way to evacuate the crew from the Andalina by late last night, when weather conditions in the area were said to be bad. The nationality of the other crew members was not clear. Trippy travelers Police at Thessaloniki airport yesterday discovered 15 hallucinogenic cacti, along with quantities of cannabis and a range of pipes, in the luggage of six young travelers arriving in the northern city from Amsterdam. The cacti, believed to contain the hallucinogenic alkaloid mescaline, were found in the bags of the youngsters, aged between 15 and 20. Police did not announce the nationalities of the youngsters, who were detained.
