A 65-year-old individual, suspected of having fraudulently received nearly €17,000 in RSA without living in France but in Turkey, was tried this Monday, January 20 by the Narbonne criminal court.
There are 85 people in the Narbonne area who are wanted by the courts for having fraudulently received social benefits from the Aude Family Allowance Fund because they do not live in France but are staying abroad. Social benefits fraud, the fight against which has become one of the priority areas of the criminal policy of the Narbonne public prosecutor's office.
It is this scam that appeared at the hearing of the Narbonne criminal court this Monday, January 20, where a 65-year-old man was being prosecuted for having touched, between the 1is September 2019 and October 31, 2022, for nearly €17,000 of RSA (active solidarity income) by making false declarations on a domiciliation in France.
It all began in September 2019 when the Aude family allowance fund noticed that the respondent's declaration was being made on the Internet from Turkey. Thanks to its internal software and in the absence of the individual using a VPN (software allowing you to protect your online activity), the social organization then decides to carry out an in-depth check of this man who has worked around thirty years in France but who seems to have been living in Turkey for around ten years. The absence of banking activity in France and the examination of the passports of the accused finally convinced the Caf that it was indeed a scam and a complaint was filed in September 2023. A mandate from research is then established under the authority of the Narbonne public prosecutor's office and the individual is arrested on 1is October 2024 when he has just boarded a boat in the port of Marseille from Ankara in Türkiye. Facts that the main person involved in this affair will confess in police custody.
Statements from abroad which exploded at the time of the Covid crisis
In his indictment, the Narbonne prosecutor, Eric Camous, recalled all the difficulties for French justice in being able to judge these frauds carried out from abroad and which accelerated at the time of the health crisis when the borders were closed and the thugs could no longer cross France to make their declarations.
And in this specific case according to the public prosecutor, if the accused returned to France – which is rare in this type of case – it was indeed to unduly affect “community money”. The prosecution thus requested for the latter a sentence of one year's imprisonment without a committal warrant as well as a ban on returning to France in order to “to send a strong message and make those who would like to commit fraud think twice with a simple click”.
-Civil party in this case, the Aude Family Allowance Fund claimed, in addition to the reimbursement of the sums fraudulently collected from the department council, manager of the payment of the RSA, reparations for material and moral damage in the amount of €1,000 as well as reimbursement of legal costs of €1,500.
In her defense, the defendant's lawyer wanted to minimize the scope of the fraud. “He worked for 27 years in France; he did not get rich because these benefits were used to pay for his children's studies; he fell into the easy way in the face of a difficult financial situation” she pleaded before calling on the court for leniency.
Finally, in its verdict, the Narbonne court sentenced him to a one-year suspended prison sentence, with the obligation to repay the sums unduly received as well as €1,000 to Caf for material and moral. He will finally have to pay €1,800 in legal costs incurred by the social organization and the Aude departmental council.
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