ATHENS – The Greek states is fining businesses for taking too much space on public beaches where they are given leases – against the constitution. Inspectors are fining violators and closing some briefly.

The new phone app #MyCoast brought more than 10,000 complaints initially about the public facing restrictions on beaches that were taken over by businesses and luxury resorts charging up to hundreds of dollars a day for sunbeds and umbrellas.

The state said it had given concessions to 1,650 businesses to occupy space on public beaches that is supposed to be limited to 30 percent although photos on websites from resorts show many nearly filled with them.

The Ministry of Finance said it had also so far found another 150 concessions not given that were up for bid because there was not enough interest, or a bidder then backed away from the agreement.

It wasn’t said how many unlawful businesses had taken over beaches without a lease, including cases where businesses didn’t even apply for leases or concessions and just took over beaches and set up umbrellas and sunbeds for rent, no report if they were shut down.

The ministry has seen complaints about takeovers soaring and in one case a person given a license to operate a food cart instead set up a cafe bar, no report about a fine or being closed, which usually is just for 48 hours.

State and local governments conducted 10,000 inspections in July and the ministry said only 11 percent were inspected, some 1,100, including 290 in one week and that fines totaling 1.5 million euros ($1.26 million) were issued.

Businesses operating beyond their leases that are fined have shown it’s worth it because they make so much profit the penalties aren’t a deterrent, although the ministry said on Paros that some were shut down: it wasn’t said for how long.

And another that put up umbrellas and required people to rent them on a public beach was forced to return the fees and was fined 51,000 euros ($55,647), but it wasn’t said if allowed to keep operating.

Authorities are using drones as well as the app and phone call reports to detect violators but the leases keep being granted against the Constitution because they are lucrative, the prices paid recently rising an average of 18 percent per square meter.

Digital Governance Minister Dimitris Papastergiou earlier told Parapolitika FM radio that #MyCoast let “citizens going to a beach use their mobile phones to report cases where certain spots on the beach are illegally occupied by sunbeds and umbrellas.”

He said both the Digital Governance and the Finance ministries were also using an Artificial Intelligence system to scan beaches with recent photos “to see if the rental limits of these spaces are respected,” no report what would happen if they’re not.

In a feature, the news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported on how transgressions were continuing, and flourishing, despite government promises to let people use their own beaches without being locked out or forced to pay.

AFP pointed to Pefkochori Beach on the popular Halkidiki peninsula that has some of the most beautiful – and overcrowded – beaches in the country and said there were two businesses running there right up to the water’s edge, neither licensed.