Two couples particularly uncomfortable yesterday, at the bar of the Saint-Denis Court of Appeal. Judged again for having been associated in a traffic of counterfeits: bottles of perfumes Dior, Givenchy, Guerlain and other famous brands. Hugo Boss clothes, Lacoste, PSG jerseys. Four defendants unknown to justice until this case came out in 2021 after the discovery by customs of a package containing prohibited goods.
The package had made it possible to identify this small socially integrated group: a well-being self-entrepreneur, a manager of a private security company as well as an investigator from the Saint-Denis police station and his spouse. The origins of the business: financial problems encountered by the two wives. One struggling to find a job after following her newly transferred police husband to Reunion. The other in a context of the Covid crisis and a decline in its activities. More for “put some butter on the spinach” than actually engage in a lucrative business, argues their lawyer.
One would have initiated this small traffic after contacting a supplier via l’application Snapchat. Perfumes bought for 2.5 euros on average and resold for 15 euros here on the island. Before ordering counterfeit clothes in a second step. Between January and June 2021, just under 1,000 products would have been purchased from this supplier residing in mainland France. Merchant whom the police officer would have met there in order to ensure his seriousness, taking advantage of one of his trips.
“TANKS”
Regarding the dubious origin of the products, the defendants kick in touch. “You were aware that these were counterfeit products? What did you explain to customers to justify such low prices?”, asks the president of the court. “That they were tank bottoms. That’s what the supplier told me”, blows the auto-entrepreneur. “I smelled the perfumes on arrival, it seemed coherent to me. But I had doubts about the quality-price ratio”, concedes his spouse. The magistrates remain skeptical.
At first instance, the Saint-Pierre court imposed fines ranging from 1,000 euros suspended to 4,000 euros, including 2,000 suspended. All accompanied by a customs fine of nearly 5,500 euros to be paid jointly between the four defendants. Problem: the court considers a possible material error, because customs claimed more than 55,000 euros during the first trial.
The prosecution had in any case appealed the decision against these “sentences which do not reflect the seriousness of the facts”, says the Advocate General. With counterfeits causing “serious consequences on the economy and possibly on people’s health”. The public prosecutor is asking for suspended sentences of four to six months, a customs fine of nearly 55,000 euros and the registration of the conviction in the criminal record, contrary to what had been decided at first instance.
Disproportionate requisitions, believes the defense. With only a hundred products sold during the period retained. “A lot of regrets in this case. They are not delinquents, but people who are inserted and who can see their lives and their careers shattered by this affair”, argues Me Odier. The case in particular for the policeman and the security guard, two professions which do not marry with a criminal record. “These are people we’ve never heard of before, and will never hear from again,” provide their advice. The court’s decision will be known on April 20.
Celine Legay
