10 years later, he denies the robbery in Saint-Nazaire

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Three men were called to appear before the Saint-Nazaire criminal court Tuesday November 12, 2024 for offenses committed in 2014.

The youngest (22 entries in the criminal record), incarcerated in Rouen, eligible for release in 2029, having refused the videoconference, the court separated the file and tried the other two. One, 29 years old (one mention), appeared free for theft and complicity in Trignac at the end of May 2014. The other, 32 years old (16 mentions), incarcerated since 2021, apparently until February 2027, had to answer for a violent robbery, on June 16, 2014, at Leader Price d'Océanis in Saint-Nazaire (Loire-Atlantique). Rarely has a prisoner defended himself with such virulence in front of his judges.

“Thousands of euros a day selling cocaine”

The affair begins with the sale of a motorcycle on Bon Coin.

A buyer shows up as the seller leaves to work with his vehicle.

In the evening, not only was his interior broken into, but his Audi disappeared.

His buyer came in a Mégane driven and belonging to the free defendant.

This is how investigators made the connection with an Audi fuel smuggling at the Total station in Trignac, on June 15, 2014, a vehicle seen the next day during the Leader Price robbery.

Questioned by the president of the court, the November 12, 2024the owner of the Mégane admitted to having served as driver and regretted it:

“I was a high school student, my maturity changed… I gained nothing from the affair.”

His lawyer, Me Céline Le Goff, added: “He spent five months in pre-trial detention and has never had peace of mind since.”

Knowing that he had a conviction in 2022 for drug possession, she insisted: “This is the second, but probably the last time that he is before you. We must consider how far we have come.”

Even before the strong pleading of M^e Sami Khankan, the Nantes resident detained in Brest and judged by videoconference, denied any participation, implicating a Nazairian well known to the justice system and with whom he has “an open conflict”: “The competition used you to harm me! »

Believing that he was denounced solely on his convictions, he insisted: “I don't need to carry out robberies. At 21, I earned thousands of euros a day selling cocaine… The other accused me and the police, who had nothing to show for it, took advantage of it.” .

The president remarking to him: “Why did you confess to the theft of thousands of euros from the Leader Price fund with such precision? »

The answer is surprising: “I hired bosses or drug dealers, I know everyone involved in delinquency, Saint-Nazaire is small.”

He continues: “There were thirteen robberies to be solved, the police told me “we know that you have nothing to do with the case, but you will be implicated in the others…”

So, he insists: “I know how to count, it is better that I take five years for acts that I did not commit, than 20 years, so afterwards, they left me alone”.

“I have an uncle who is an international trafficker”

He does not hesitate to call the president as witness: “You know me, you know that I have an uncle who is an international trafficker! “

And that’s not all: “I am a personality at the Bouletterie, because I am the founder of the oven. »

After having dotted the i's of the defendants to show them the difficulties encountered by the victims, in particular the employees of Leader Price who had a kick for one, a (dummy) pistol for the other, the prosecutor recalls that the criminals were quickly recognized.

“Delinquent logorrhea”

She didn't have a shadow of a doubt:

“This man would have been naive to the point of giving the police what they expected, I don’t believe a word of it. He’s not someone who lets himself be fooled.”

She showed her concern about “this delinquent logorrhea which has nothing to do with a discourse of reintegration”.

The magistrate specified that “if he had six mentions before these facts, his record has been enriched since”.

Faced with this file “abandoned for too long in the boxes”, M^e Sami Khankan insisted that he relies on the statements of the person with whom his client is in conflict.

“Condemned gratuitously”

Also insisting on the fact “that a confession is never the sign of an absolute truth, that there were only few convincing arguments”, he pleaded for acquittal.

The court did not follow it. Sentenced to twelve months in prison, his client immediately rebuked: “What I remember is that you sentenced me for free.”

His accomplice received a sentence of nine months, four of which were simply suspended, which covers his five months of pre-trial detention. Both are banned from possessing a weapon for five years.

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