Tours Criminal Court
A bench of civil parties waiting for answers and a desperately empty court bar. ” It’s frustrating “recognizes the public prosecutor. “I can understand your disappointment, but the court was not expected to have them present”addresses President Damien Reymond to the victims who are moved by it.
The three men, found guilty of a series of twenty-four burglaries, were identified, but never arrested. Andria Razmadze and Mamuka Kavelashvili were sentenced to three years in prison on Tuesday June 11. The last, Davit Toduat, thirty months old. All on the receiving end of an arrest warrant, they will then be permanently banned from French territory.
“Burglaries while respecting the premises only exist in films”
The Georgian trio was renamed “Twig 37” by investigators because of their modus operandi. After spotting an empty house, the thieves placed a piece of wood in front of the house. When they return to burglarize, they set about tearing the bars off the closed gates.
When they leave, they finally try to erase their traces by spraying the area with a liquid concentrated in alcohol. “They broke everything”remembers one of the victims. “We came back from vacation, everything was on the floor”, explains for a second. Only one civil party is accompanied by a lawyer. The others seem crushed by the judicial machine, sometimes struggling to express their demands to the judges.
“Burglaries while respecting the premises only exist in films”, regrets Joël Patard, deputy public prosecutor. Homes are completely searched for sometimes meager loot, such as a branded perfume or €40 in cash. Most often, it is jewelry with sentimental values that disappears. Leaving the inhabitants deprived of their memories.
A car identified by investigators
Between May and August 2023, the criminals are based in Montargis (Loiret), but particularly mobile. They are rampant in Indre-et-Loire, but also in Loiret, Nièvre and Haute-Vienne. Each time they travel, they settle in rental accommodation and stay for a few days to visit several houses. They traveled with a Renault Megane – which investigators ended up identifying – and were confused by the markings on their phones or by DNA left at the scene.
The damages claimed by the victims will all be examined on October 25 during a specific hearing. Other people must be tried for the same facts, according to different procedures. Although the amounts stolen are sometimes small, the costs of the damage sometimes amount to several thousand euros.
