Lithuania nabs tax cheats using Google Street View

Lithuanian tax officials said Wednesday they tracked down at least 100 suspected tax cheats by checking out their property using Google's Street View mapping service.

The Baltic state's tax authorities will now probe individuals whose buildings appeared to be worth considerably more than the declared value to determine if they sought to evade taxes, tax service spokesman Darius Buta told AFP.

Buta said they used the popular online application, which lets users view panoramic street scenes on Google Maps, to confirm real estate information on tax declarations.

Google Street View came online in Lithuania in January, after authorities overcame their initial reluctance stemming from security and privacy concerns.