Employed in a tobacco bar in northwestern Côtes-d'Armor, the employee scratched compulsively, up to 60 games per day. She was tried this Friday, for theft, at the Guingamp Criminal Court.
"At scratch games, only the French Games never loses": the defense lawyer summarily summarized the situation, this Friday, the Guingamp Criminal Court. His client, could have lost big.
This woman of about forty years, employed by her companion (they are separated since) in a bar-tobacco of the north-west of the department was continued for theft. On December 31, 2017, the latter had lodged a complaint with the gendarmerie. His accountant had alerted him of a hole of nearly 84 000 € in the annual cash, only on scratch games.
"I scratched on credit"
"I played mostly the game at 5 €, concedes the defendant. I was bored at the bar, I scratched on credit. But I wrote it down on paper, to pay for it later. " She threw the losing tickets and cashed the winners, to take new ones.
The president puts things into perspective, pulling down pages of winning ticket listings: "From 2016 to 2017, the bar went from € 134,000 to € 331,000 for scraping. It's enormous. "
The defendant refuses to put all the money on her back: "There were also big players. All the tickets that went to the machine did not come from me .
Up to 60 tickets a day
She admits that sometimes she could scratch up to 60 tickets a day. The lawyer of the manager is appalled: "For him, it is 89 646 € of injury. A man who works hard and wants to be compensated. He had to make a loan to reinflate his cash, could have gone into liquidation because of that ... "
The prosecutor regrets the "bad faith" of the defendant, who "minimizes the facts in their magnitude, enormous". Six months of suspended sentence are required. The defense attorney is surprised that "nobody has realized this gear, this addiction. She was not aware of committing a robbery, and her lifestyle is not at all expensive. "
The court will render its decision on November 30.