Crete Launches Pre-Emptive Strike On Drunk Britons

In the last 24 hours alone, 16 Britons were detained and held overnight just because they were drunk, police spokesman, Captain Yannis Milathianakis said. Two of those arrested were women.

"We have decided that it might prove more effective if we make the arrests before the actual trouble breaks out," he said. "So we have started a campaign of detentions whenever our officers notice that someone is drunk and potentially dangerous, rather than intervene after the damage has been done".

"It's a new policy called pre-emptive action against alcohol-prompted crime at holiday resorts," he added.

The Foreign Office announced last month that more British women get raped in Greece every year than anywhere else in the world. Most of the culprits, it added, are other Britons or Eastern European immigrant workers employed at bars, tavernas and seaside clubs.

Captain Milathianakis said that "more than 500 Britons" have been arrested and charged since the start of the holiday season at Mallia at the beginning of May. "Most of them were given light sentences, fined and released", he added.

Under Greek law anybody sentenced to less than two years imprisonment can buy off the term at a rate of 10 euros (£7.90) per day sentenced. A six-month sentence for having sex on a public beach, for example, would cost the guilty parties 1,800 euros each.

09.08.2008