Europe 1 with AFP 2:57 p.m., November 23, 2021

A doctor from Val-de-Marne was taken into custody on Tuesday.

He is suspected of having sold at least 220 fake health passes, at 1,000 euros each.

Two suspected accomplices and around 20 clients were also questioned.

A doctor from Val-de-Marne suspected of having sold at least 220 fake health passes, his alleged accomplices and around twenty buyers were taken into police custody on Tuesday, AFP learned from a police source.

The 56-year-old doctor has a practice in the small town of Joinville-Le-Pont, south-east of Paris.

He is suspected of having sold at least 220 false passes, for a price displayed at 1,000 euros each.

During the search of his office, investigators seized, among other things, fake PCR passes and tests.

Two alleged accomplices

This doctor practices in Val-de-Marne, but was arrested in Seine-Saint-Denis, where he lives. Investigators seized his flag "valued at 600,000 euros", as well as "fifteen bank accounts for several thousand euros". His alleged accomplices, a 53-year-old woman and a 49-year-old man, were also arrested, respectively in Val-de-Marne and in Brittany, then placed in police custody.

These falsification cases linked to the Covid-19 pandemic often implicate "people employed in vaccination centers (...) cyber-attackers who use the doctor's code to make false passes", but rarely " a doctor who starts to cash in ", comments the police source.

In July, investigators from the Territorial Security of Val-de-Marne were alerted to the existence of a Snapchat account offering fake PCR tests and fake health passes.

Their investigations "showed that the patients never came to the office".

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Suspicion of social security fraud

The twenty or so clients in custody, all of them over 18, would not be particularly opposed to vaccination.

It is "the summer period" which would have motivated their fraudulent purchases: "Some countries demanded a complete vaccination cycle and they paid exorbitant prices to go on vacation", advance the police source.

Investigators suspect the doctor of Social Security fraud.

At least three departments - Seine-Saint-Denis, Paris and Val-de-Marne - would be victims.