Ten investigated over suspected fraudulent sick leave certificates at Cyprus prisons

Nicosia, Cyprus. Eight prison officers and two doctors are under criminal investigation after findings that sick leave certificates were issued without corresponding records in Gesy.

Investigators are examining suspected coordination between medical staff and prison personnel to obtain medical leave and defraud the state.

Investigation into certificates

The investigation concerns a number of sick leave certificates issued to prison officers and seeks to establish whether the absences were medically justified.

Evidence collected with the assistance of the audit office raised suspicions of coordination between two doctors — a pathologist and an orthopaedic doctor — and eight prison officers who allegedly benefited from the arrangement.

Absence records

According to the findings, some of the officers attended work for only two to three weeks a year during recent periods while continuing to receive full salaries.

One officer was on sick leave for 205 working days in 2023 and 202 working days in 2024. He submitted 51 medical certificates in 2023 and 60 in 2024, with only six of those certificates not issued by the two doctors under investigation.

Audit office findings

The case followed testimony by an audit office official to police investigators, in which the two doctors and eight officers were identified.

A special report on the prison department dated March 10, 2026, first raised suspicions that the individuals may have acted together to defraud the state. To determine whether the certificates corresponded to genuine consultations, the audit office requested data from the health insurance organisation and compared it with Gesy entries.