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Editorial Guingamp
Published on
Dec 20 2024 at 4:45 p.m.
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Did the Guingamp real estate loan broker defraud the state via compensation linked to Covid 19?
The Saint-Brieuc criminal court looked into this case on Thursday December 19, 2024. Three years ago, almost to the day, the labor inspectorate contacted the public prosecutor in order to report these facts to him.
The investigation carried out by this organization attempted to demonstrate this fraud of several thousand euros, corresponding to the aid received from URSSAFF and the State.
The consequences of the health crisis
From March 17, 2020, the start date of the first confinement linked to the health crisis, the fifteen employees of this company continued their activity by teleworking part-time. For the majority of them, employment time was set at 10%, which represents three and a half hours per week.
A third of employees blame their boss
As part of the investigation carried out by the Saint-Brieuc labor inspection services, the employees were interviewed. Some reported having worked more than 3.5 hours, at the request of their boss. These requests would have been made during weekly video meetings.
The business leader has always denied having made such requests. He specifies in court: “The priority of the weekly video sessions was social connections, I say it and I repeat it”.
Other employees support him
He is also supported by three employees, who changed jobs today, and who came to court to testify in his favor.
These three people are unanimous: “There was not enough work to exceed these three and a half hours of weekly work anyway.”
Among the five ex-employees, victims in this case, one of them came to speak in court. She estimates that she worked 60 to 70% during this period. She would have prospected possible new customers in her neighborhood, in accordance with her boss's instructions.
These five ex-employees are seeking damages ranging from 1,000 to 4,000 euros.
The difficulty of establishing the actual time worked
Different documents were studied by the investigating department, such as employee diaries, but all tell the same story: no one really kept it up to date. Emails and telephone calls made by employees during the period concerned were also recorded.
Maître Benoit Gicquel, of the Rennes bar, specialist in social law and defender of the defendant at the hearing, responded to this assertion. He would like to point out that the labor inspectorate only recorded the “logs” and not the detailed emails. That is to say, no details on the content and size of the emails were used.
It was also at the same time that the Cogedis group, specializing in accounting and business consulting, already present in the capital of the Guingamp company, gradually became a majority shareholder. This takeover will lead to the loss of the “family” side of society.
No personal enrichment
The public prosecutor entrusted part of the investigations to the Guingamp gendarmerie research brigade. This service was able to demonstrate that neither the defendant nor any member of his family was personally enriched in connection with the compensation received.
For the public prosecutor, a proposal to dismiss the case subject to reimbursement of this file was previously proposed to the defendant.
He refused it, believing that he had not committed any offense. This magistrate requires a suspended prison sentence of 18 months, as well as a ban on management for a period of five years. She also requests the dissemination of the judgment in the press.
The defense pleads for acquittal
To conclude, the defense lawyer takes up certain arguments which he made during the debates and regrets that the scanned file of the labor inspectorate is not complete, several annexes are missing which could have provided details on the time actual work of employees.
He takes an example from the figures provided by the survey. An employee, victim, carried out 68 actions (email or telephone calls) in one week…
“This figure is very easily achievable in 3 hours 30 minutes” according to this advice.
He pleads for his client to be released, specifying that neither the State nor Urssaff have become a civil party in this case.
The defendant closed the proceedings in these terms: “What interest would I have had in defrauding, I already knew that I was losing my business”.
The judgment has been reserved and will be delivered next March.
SK
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