Nanterre (AFP)
Patrick Balkany confirmed Tuesday to be summoned mid-September by the judicial police who suspect him of having employed drivers of his town hall of Levallois-Perret (Hauts-de-Seine) for personal purposes, especially during holidays.
"I am summoned mid-September to be heard by the PJ," told AFP the elected LR, confirming information Marianne.
The mayor of Levallois-Perret could be heard in free hearing or in custody.
An investigation, opened by the floor of Nanterre, is in progress since January 2014 in this case called "drivers".
A preliminary investigation for "embezzlement of public funds" had been opened a year and a half ago, following an anonymous letter denouncing to the prosecutor's office of abuses in the operation of the municipal police of the municipality. A few months later, unions had denounced the use by the mayor and his wife, also first assistant, Isabelle Balkany, two police as private drivers, especially during holidays in the Caribbean.
After searches of the PJ at the city hall of Levallois in 2013, Patrick Balkany had justified on his Facebook account: "A municipal police officer is, in all legality and administrative compliance, seconded to the mayor's office to perform the functions of safety driver ". "During his holidays, I invited him once, of course on my own money, in a rented house in Saint-Martin," he added.
His wife, for his part, felt that this case was only "a settling of accounts" within the municipal police.
Patrick and Isabelle Balkany are waiting for their judgment in two other cases of greater magnitude.
On September 13, the court must render its decision in a case of "tax evasion" for which the prosecution requested against the couple up to four years in prison.
And on October 18, the Paris Criminal Court will give its judgment in a second part in which they are suspected of "large-scale laundering". Seven and four years in prison were respectively required against them.
The town was sentenced in 1996 to 15 months suspended sentence and two years ineligibility for using three municipal employees exclusively occupied to serve in his apartment and his second home.
© 2019 AFP