In Seine-Maritime, a trustee embezzles 200,000 euros from his protégés under guardianship

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It is difficult to quantify the damage exactly, as there are so many victims. For almost 3 years, between 2013 and 2016, a former legal representative to the protection of adults Rouvray hospital centernear Rouen (Seine-Maritime), took advantage of the vulnerability of the people he was supposed to protect to embezzle no less than 200,000 euros.

Retirees, people with multiple disabilities or even seriously ill people… All the victims were under protective measures, that is to say under guardianship or curatorship. And all the victims had one thing in common: the same agent, Fabrice*.

Laid off in 2020

Now aged 57, Fabrice has not worked as a representative since his layoff in 2020The management of the Rouvray Hospital Center (CHR) noticed numerous inconsistencies in the accounting of patients under measurement managed by Fabrice.

After notifying the authorities, a lengthy police investigation was opened to determine the offences and, above all, the damage. On Monday, September 16, 2024, Fabrice was called to appear before the Rouen court for fraud and breach of trust to the detriment of 13 vulnerable people.

Absent at the hearing and not represented by a lawyer, the defendant never really explained the facts alleged.

Vulnerable people in great precariousness

In this complex case, the president of the court was keen to recall the many methods used by the agent to embezzle money from the protected persons in his care.

First of all, some adults have been scammed by their agent with fake vouchers in supermarkets. Scams that cost thousands of euros, often discovered very late by the victims.

In their investigation, the police also discovered that many invoices of people under measure remained unpaid or that requests for financial aid had not been renewed. Failures which had the effect of accentuating the precariousness of these vulnerable people“Some have had to cancel their hospital discharge due to a lack of resources,” the president notes.

Embezzlement and fraudulent invoices

But the embezzlement increased with some victims. Investigators discovered, for example, that Fabrice was billing excessive amounts for home renovation work for his adults on behalf of a company he owned. himself the leader. A way to easily embezzle money from his protégés without arousing suspicion, the president believes.

The agent has not always been very discreet, however. Among other things, he has hired companies to carry out work in the homes of certain protected adults even though the latter did not own not even real estate. Was the work done for his personal interests? It is difficult to say.

Even more devious, Fabrice organized the moving of furniture belonging to certain adults without their consent. According to the investigations, he produced false documents to authorize companies to store various objects belonging to his protégés in storage facilities. He is also suspected of having embezzled money from a person under guardianship that was supposed to be used to pay his admission to a retirement home.

The high point of this scam is certainly the sale of two homes without the authorization of one of Fabrice’s protected adults. A sale that generated nearly 170,000 euros, placed in a bank account that the agent happily plundered using cash withdrawals in different places for a total of around the 100,000 euros.

He leaves Normandy and disappears

But reality soon caught up with the crook.

The investigation revealed a financial flow that was out of line with his income.

The prosecutor believes that the agent embezzled no less than 200,000 euros during his three years of misdeeds.

Fabrice was then living comfortably in “a luxury property worth 200,000 euros, had taken out a loan of 100,000 euros and owned 2 cars”. The investigation will also reveal that the agent owns a luxury Rolex watch.

However, faced with growing pressure and the investigation opened in 2020, Fabrice leaves Normandy in a hurry and sells all of his assets. Despite a few hearings where he partially admitted the facts, Fabrice is now unreachable and untraceable.

Banned from practicing as a representative for life

Without defense, the former agent is logically sentenced to the amount requested by the public prosecutor. Namely, four years in prisonincluding two years with a simple suspended sentence. A sentence accompanied by an arrest warrant.

In addition, the former agent is deprived of civic, civil and family rights for 5 years. He is also banned for life from exercising activities as a judicial representative for the protection of adults and from managing any real estate or commercial company.

The court also validated the compensation of part of the amounts defrauded, in the form of material and moral damages, to the numerous victims of the agent.

*First name has been changed

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