Some 141 doctors and paramedics at a public hospital in Rome have been charged with fraud for giving free medical tests to friends and family evading regional taxes, police said on Friday.
Officers from the Guardia di Finanza, Italy’s tax police, discovered widespread cheating at the Grassi hospital in Ostia, a seaside suburb of the Italian capital.
The Guardia di Finanza said in a statement they started checking hospital staff in November 2017 after being warned about a dishonest nurse in the surgery unit.
She did not turn out to be an isolated case. According to police, a total of 523 people were spared from paying hospital taxes, which vary, but can run into dozens of euros.