By Tamsin Smith BBC News reporter in Sicily, Italy

Farm inspector Mr Lanza takes pictures with a GPS device

It was here in the fields of southern Italy that the EU-wide fight against farm subsidy fraud began over 20 years ago.

The European Union became suspicious when Italian olive oil subsidies doubled in a decade. They demanded Italy step up controls or face fines.

"We found cases in some areas of Italy where half of what the farmers asked for was simply not true," remembers Ferdinando Smania, a civil engineer who was given the job of finding a solution.

Secret mission

In the past, Mr Smania has found farmers declaring non-existent trees and crops. Car parks, forests, even mountains have been declared as farm land.

Mr Tosi does on the spot checks to see if the farmers' claims match reality

"But now we have a system to control everything," he says. "I have personally counted every olive tree in Italy. Twice."

"We do on the spot checks to see if the farmer's claim matches what's there," explains Paolo Tosi, driving deep into the countryside with a team of Sicilian farm inspectors.

Lurching violently from one side of the Land Rover to the other along what is more like a ditch than a road, it was clear this team of fraudbusters would not get far without serious four wheel drive.

""I've broken three cars doing this job," shouts Mr Tosi, wheelspinning up an embankment. "The farmer doesn't know we're coming. The idea is not to involve him unless there's a problem."

Deterrent

At the farm, the inspectors unravel huge aerial photos and cross check the area and crop with the EU claim.

In the past, inspectors have found farmers declaring non-existent trees and crops

A handheld GPS device takes on the spot pictures with coordinates that are fed back into a national database in the office.

"Now we have a global picture of what each farm has," says Salvatore Lanza. "Even if some farmers attempt fraud, now its really marginal and these controls are a deterrent."

There is little doubt that these controls are reaping rewards.

Last year, 3% of Italy's farm aid claims were found to be irregular, compared with 25% a decade ago.

Expensive policing

Many aspects of the Italian system were used across the rest of Europe.

Mr Kay: "There might be a perception in the new countries that there is easy money to be made."

Yet it costs 70m euros (�47m; $86m) a year just to make sure Italian farmers do not cheat. This begs the question; will policing farm subsidies in an enlarged EU with 5 million farmers be worth the cost?

"These systems are cost effective when you compare with the overall cost of Europe's Common Agricultural Policy," says Simon Kay, who helps manage the EU-wide farm monitoring system at the European Commission's Joint Research Centre near Milan.

"When you are paying out billions of euros there's a lot of opportunity for fraud, so 60 or 70 euros per claim to check it is right makes sense."

Easy victory

The Joint Research Centre has built on the Italian experience and is busy rolling out anti-fraud controls across the new member states.

Bartender Felippo: "Before there were no rules here."

By next year, all 25 EU countries will be using aerial photos and many will use satellite imagery.

On a computer, Mr Kay shows how future aerial images will be converted into 3D computer graphics, not unlike computer games.

He is confident that the battle against farm fraud will be easily won.

"At the beginning there might be a perception in the new countries that there is easy money to be made, but we hope by next year they will see its not so easy to cheat the system," Mr Kay says.

Questions

It did not happen overnight, but the Italian approach to cutting farm fraud has changed perceptions of the EU even in the remotest corners of Sicily.

Information collected by the farm inspectors is also freely available to the farmers to help them manage their properties.

Many are delighted to see aerial photos of their land for the first time.

Farmers propping up the local bar begrudgingly admit that farm subsidies are no longer an opportunity to make an extra bit of cash.

"I think all these controls are OK," admits Francesco. "But there are too many questions, always questions, just because I have three or four trees fewer than I said."