They cheated the municipality to get the shopping vouchers, 34 complaints in Mineo

They cheated the municipality to take advantage of the shopping vouchers, for this reason the carabinieri of Mineo, in the province of Catania, reported 34 people, 18 men and 16 women aged between 28 and 61 to the Judicial Authority. Against them the military, in the light of the investigative findings acquired, found elements of responsibility as they were held responsible for aggravated fraud for the achievement of public funds and ideological falsehood committed by the private in a public act. The activity developed through the comparison of the data acquired through the requests presented by the interested parties with those relating to the tax returns and the personal data of the individual members of the households. In particular, in the period examined by the survey (from July to October 2020), the correct compliance with the rules concerning the distribution of support measures linked to the socio-health emergency caused by the pandemic from Covid-19 and, specifically, the so-called ‘shopping vouchers’. However, the use of this assistance instrument presupposes the existence of specific requirements (including, not being recipients of other income and paying in a state of indigence) that the current suspects, although not in possession, have declared to have by signing self-certifications filed with offices. In fact, they turned out to be recipients, for various reasons, of some public subsidies such as citizenship income, ‘new Social Insurance for Employment benefit’ (NASpI), ’emergency income’ (REM). (and therefore to the detriment of those really in need) by all the suspects in the period in question was over 11 thousand euros, or about 34% of the total allocated by the Sicilian Region to the municipality of Mineo for the specific assignment, amounting to 32.004 euros .