Italy `land of the con-artist'

ANDREW GUMBEL

in Rome

A couple of years back, two men pretending to be inspectors from the Bank of Italy knocked on the doors of a housing estate in the northern town of Asti and explained to the residents that they had to hand over all their cash.

The reason, they explained, was that since the governor of the Bank of Italy, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, had become prime minister, his signature on banknotes had become invalid. Cash, therefore, had to be handed in and exchanged for new notes.

Residents on the estate, many of them pensioners, fell for the ploy and willingly handed over the equivalent of pounds 8,000 to the fake inspectors.

Italy has always been known as a hive of con-artistry and trickery and, according to a new report published this week by a think-tank, such scams may well be the very lifeblood of this most crafty of European countries.

The report, The Italy that Cheats, is a long and colourful catalogue of forgeries and rip-offs in every field of life. Within its pages are fake tax inspectors, fake policemen and fake priests; tax-dodgers, fare- dodgers and television licence-dodgers; pirate videos and doctored CDs, doctored pasta and adulterated olive oil.

About 7.2 million people - 15 per cent of the population - are believed to work in the black economy and therefore either cheat on their taxes or do not pay them at all.

One of the most lucrative sectors is the fake fashion label business, in which Italy lags only slightly behind the world-beaters, Thailand and South Korea. Art theft is a popular career choice, too, with about 30,000 precious objects vanishing in Italy annually.

Ripping off the state is an even more common practice. An estimated 5 million people use public transport without paying.Public servants are absent for an average of 22 days a year on top of their 32 days of holiday.