Anyone who has registered a vehicle in Macedonia has paid those line items without asking. A few hundred denars for state roads, something for the Red Cross, something for the Republic Road Safety Council, something for the environment. Small sums, multiplied by hundreds of thousands of vehicles a year.

Now the Interior Ministry investigation claims part of that money never reached the place printed on the receipt. The total unlawful gain cited by police is 138.8 million denars, or around 2.26 million euros.

How the scheme worked

According to the Interior Ministry, the main suspect S.S. (49), owner and manager of a company running vehicle inspections, drew up false reports on the money collected at registration from 2021 until January 2026. He was helped by D.M. (54), a manager at the inspection station, who prepared and signed the invoices and reports sent to the institutions.

The money was then moved through the accounts of an insurance brokerage, where other fees were charged alongside the policies. Also suspected are Š.S. (29) and Z.Đ. (58), executive board members of the brokerage, who police say knew where the money came from and took part in concealing it - moving it between accounts and mixing it with regular income.

Part of the money was recorded as loans. Part was used to buy property in the name of the companies. The investigation also covers a certified accountant, M.D. (40), suspected of entering false data into the accounting records and the tax returns.

Who was left short

The breakdown of the damage is what shows the real picture: more than 48.4 million denars relates to the state roads public enterprise, 1.48 million to the Red Cross, 5.58 million to the Environment Ministry, and more than 83.3 million denars to the state budget and the municipalities.

In other words, the budget and the local coffers took the biggest hit. These are the same municipalities that later have no money for bins, for asphalt, for street lighting.

The police operation was carried out on 2 and 3 September under the Basic Public Prosecutor's Office for Organised Crime and Corruption. Three people were detained. Searches seized around 27,735 euros, 38,500 denars, 750 Swiss francs and 100 dollars, along with several mobile phones and two passenger vehicles. Charges have been filed against six individuals and three legal entities.

The five years nobody noticed

The scheme ran, according to the investigation, from 2021 to January 2026. That is five years in which reports went to the institutions and the institutions received them. Somebody signed them, somebody filed them, somebody was supposed to compare them with the actual number of registered vehicles.

Among the suspects is a deputy finance director at a public enterprise. So oversight was not merely absent - according to the investigation, it was part of the scheme.

The arrests are good news. But uncovering this after five years is not a success of the control system, it is proof that the system was not working. And while the court case runs, the open question is how many similar inspection stations have never been checked at all.