Police (illustration).
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Olivier CORET / SIPA
A Robin Hood in the middle of a pandemic?
A man has been indicted for having defrauded Spanish and Hong Kong sanitary products companies by pretending to be French supermarkets to order more than 30 tonnes of equipment from them, the gendarmerie said on Saturday.
The material thus collected, with a total value of 450,000 euros according to the research section of the gendarmerie of Versailles, in charge of the investigation, was then intended "for the African continent, and more precisely for the Ivory Coast".
On two occasions since the summer of 2020, a Hong Kong-based company specializing in hygiene and cleaning products has received very large orders for masks, gloves and hydroalcoholic gel supposed to come from supermarkets in various parts of France.
The company never having been paid, it lodged a complaint before the judicial court of Pontoise, in Val-d'Oise.
The investigation determined that the supermarkets were not the source of these orders and that their identity had been stolen.
Three people arrested
In November, the company received a new large order, to be delivered to warehouses in Val-d'Oise, like the previous ones, and the gendarmes were then able to arrest three individuals present at the delivery.
“31 tonnes of cleaning products, detergents and disinfectants, are discovered.
They were stolen from a Spanish firm, using the same procedure.
She had not yet realized the scam, ”said the research section of Versailles.
Two of the individuals were released, the last was indicted on Thursday and placed under judicial supervision.
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