"I put it on and, for a few moments, became a medallist myself," Yannis Zavos told Apoyevmatini newspaper on Thursday.

"But the wife started teasing me."

The rotund, bespectacled Zavos, a cabbie for 42 years, said he never thought of keeping the silver medal, left

"I didn't win it. Somebody worked very hard for that."

Crooked cabbies have been a byword among visitors to Greece for years and Zavos was keen to stand up for his profession.

"You hear a lot about taxi drivers but we are not all the same," he said. "There are a few in every profession who don't do their jobs properly and give everyone a bad name."