to obtain a driving license, you had to pay €1,000 to €2,000

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A vast fraud in obtaining a driving license was discovered by the Hérault gendarmerie, involving the manager of a permit code examination center located in Béziers and her partner, driving school instructor in Sète. Two other driving school instructors working in Melun, in Seine-et-Marne were in the scheme.

The long investigations entrusted to the gendarmes of the Poussan motorway platoon have just had legal extensions: on November 4, 2024, the Béziers criminal court sentenced the manager and her three accomplices, as revealed this Tuesday, November 26, 2024, Raphaël Ballandthe public prosecutor of Béziers.

The manager of the approved center, acquitted of the charge of passive corruption, was convicted of concealed work. His companion was convicted of active corruption and complicity in fraud by a person entrusted with a public service mission. The court imposed the same sentence of two years' imprisonment on them, including one year suspended, as well as a ban on managing a driving school center and an approved center for obtaining the code, with execution provisional.

7 and 12 months in prison

The two monitors from Melun were sentenced for active corruption and complicity in fraud by a person entrusted with a public service mission, respectively to sentences of 12 and 7 months of imprisonment, with the ban on being a car monitor -school for five years accompanied by provisional execution. The court also imposed fines of between 3,000 and 10,000 euros on each of the convicted persons and the deprivation of their right to stand for election for five years. Only one of the two driving school instructors from Melun appealed the judgment.

The investigation carried out by the Poussan motorway platoon gendarmerie established the organization of fraud in obtaining the driving license code test, from January 2021 to April 2023, by the manager of a center approved in Béziers. Candidates from all over France, and in particular from the departments of Tarn and Seçine-et-Marne, had fraudulently obtained the driving license code exam against payment of the sum of 1 000 euros on average. A candidate admitted having paid up to 2 000 euros.

2,412 candidates

Two driving school instructors from Melun were suspected of directing candidates from Seione-et-Marne towards the approved center in Béziers with a view to fraudulently obtaining the code. “In addition, the manager had not made any income declaration to the tax administration and social organizations, while 2,412 candidates had taken the November 2020 code exam, until its administrative closure in June 2023,” indicates the prosecutor.

In police custody and at the hearing, only one of the two driving school instructors from Melun admitted the facts. The manager of the exam center only acknowledged the absence of an income declaration, while claiming to be afraid of reprisals for fraudulently obtaining the code. His companion claimed to have no knowledge of all the facts, despite testimony designating him as the one who had conceived this fraud.

The Béziers public prosecutor's office had prosecuted them for counts of fraud by a person entrusted with a public service mission, complicity in fraud, active corruption, passive corruption and concealed work.

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