Popular Greek Cypriot recording artist Michalis Hatzigiannis, one of the most successful local artists of the last decade, was arrested by the Police Department of the upmarket suburb of Glyfada and subsequently released. His arrest concerned false information made by the singer’s accountant to the police testifying that his red Ferrari’s license plates had been stolen. The false declaration of the theft took place on Wednesday when the accountant reported the apparent theft of the license plates while the car was parked in Glyfada on August 24-25.

Following police inquiries it was found that the car was for sale in a showroom since 2009 and that the plates were being kept by an employee. Both the accountant and the artist were arrested for falsification of information given to authorities. Further inquiries are taking place to elucidate the case.

After the publicity in the local press, Hatzigiannis’ lawyer, Ioannis Foskolos released a statement:

“On the matter that has been widely publicized by the Mass Media concerning the car owned by Hatzidakis and remaining stationary for some time, I state that the entire matter is due to a misunderstanding.

The relevant data has been given to the authorities concerned with the case.

The matter is still at the prejudicial case without charges made as a portion of the press has stated.”

History of the red Ferrari

The red Ferrari arrived legally in Greece in 2008. The car had no circulation license because it was bought with funding and needed to be fully paid off before such documentation could be supplied.

For the last three months the car was at a showroom – initially at Chalandri and then transferred to Agia Paraskevi – and the license plates were held by an employee of the showroom. When the police asked the employee for the car’s documentation, the employee handed them over along with the license plates.

A prospective buyer for the Ferrari is willing to pay 70,000 euros, however the sale could not proceed without a license for circulation and a motive for reporting stolen license plates could have been in order to get an issue of new license plates along with the circulation license, thus allowing the sale to proceed.

The prophetic song

Here’s Hatzigiannis singing “Hands Up”, little did he know that the song would be prophetic… but for a very different reason.