Nearly 600 people on the Ionian island of Zakynthos managed to have themselves falsely declared blind, entitling them to fat monthly cheques from the state. They included shopkeepers, restaurant owners, farmers tending the island's patchwork of vineyards and olive groves, and a few amateur hunters, and even taxi drivers
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Other "blind" locals have been seen cheerfully playing cards and backgammon in the tavernas and bars of the island. "Out of 650 registered blind people on the island, we estimate that at least 600 are fraudulent claims," the mayor told The Sunday Telegraph. That represents nearly two per cent of the island's population of 35,000 - nearly 10 times the average rate of blindness in the rest of Europe.