This is an unusual case of sprawling fraud which affected many people throughout the Grand-Est, which was judged this Monday in Dijon. Nine defendants, who defrauded more than 460 owners, were declared “guilty of organized gang fraud, deception in the provision of services, aggressive commercial practices, abuse of weakness and aggravated money laundering”. Nearly twelve million euros in fines and compensation, and up to two years of imprisonment, were handed down against them in the so-called capricorn case, an insect whose presence was detected in frames by scammers.
In a judgment which required an hour and a half to read, 112 civil parties, all from the Grand-Est, were recognized but many died or abandoned the long procedure.
At the start of the case, 466 victims, often elderly people from Haute-Marne, had filed a complaint for having been deceived about unnecessary work, between 2010 and 2016. The defendants had assured them – wrongly – that their frames were infested capricorns, a pest insect that feeds on wood and damages homes. “It’s the weak against the strong,” declared prosecutor Claire Durand to describe this scam, asking “to restore their dignity to the weak,” in reference to the victims, often elderly, who had to go into heavy debt to carry out unnecessary work.
The main person responsible for this scam was finally sentenced to five years’ imprisonment, three of which were suspended, as well as a fine of one million euros. The second heaviest sentence is four years in prison, two of which are suspended, as well as a fine of one million euros. The seven other defendants received 18 months suspended to four years, including two suspended sentences, and fines of up to 173,000 euros.
“Convicts often insolvent”
In total, these fines approach 2.4 million euros. In addition, the nine defendants will have to jointly pay damages of nearly 9.5 million euros. All of them are also prohibited from running a business.
“These penalties may seem extremely significant but this scam was extremely lucrative and carried out against elderly people who were often not very fortunate,” underlined Lucie Renoux, lawyer for around fifteen civil parties, at the end of the hearing. The latter said she was “satisfied” but underlined the difficulty that it will be for the civil parties to obtain these damages, the convicted persons often being insolvent or even living abroad. The defense, who did not speak at the end of the conviction, had stigmatized during the trial an “injustice”, a lawyer listing in particular the employees of the companies concerned who earned more than 50,000 euros per month over the period concerned. and who are “not in the procedure”.
2023-09-18 17:53:42
#Heavy #fines #prison #sentences #Capricorn #scam
