A Greek cleaning lady has been sentenced to 10 years in jail for fibbing about her elementary school record in a court ruling which has provoked uproar in the country.
The 53-year-old woman had worked at a publicly funded nursery for 15 years until a review in 2014 revealed she had doctored a certificate documenting her primary education.
A regional court handed down the sentence this month on charges of defrauding the public, according to the semi-official Athens News Agency.
"This decision is not simply inhuman. It is another very indicative sign of permanent pathogens in the criminal justice system," the Hellenic League for Human Rights said in a statement on Thursday.
Based on the indictment, the woman - who has not been named - altered the certificate to show she had completed six years of elementary school, a requirement which helped her get hired as a cleaner, whereas she had finished only five.
Until about three or four decades ago it was not uncommon for poverty to force some Greek children to drop out of school, particularly in rural areas.
A senior prosecutor for the Supreme Court will review the legal reasoning of the regional court next week, judicial sources said.
Meanwhile in the German city of Munich, news agency dpa reports a cleaner who stole money, jewellery and watches to the value of half a million euros ($A785,000) from her clients' homes in southern Germany has been sentenced to three years and 10 months in jail.
Judges in a court in Munich convicted the 39-year-old woman for the particularly severe act of theft on Thursday. She can still appeal the ruling.
The woman advertised her services as a domestic worker online and was hired by several families in the state of Bavaria, from whom she stole cash, expensive jewellery and designer watches.
