Lionel Guedj, 41, will be tried with Carnot Guedj, 70, also a dentist, as well as their two companies as legal persons, for "willful violence resulting in mutilation or permanent disability" and "fraud".

The two men, also prosecuted for "use" and "complicity" in "forgery in private writing" incur 10 years' imprisonment and a fine of 375,000 euros, a sum which could rise to nearly two million euros for their companies. , not to mention the compensation of the many victims.

Abscess, pain, repeated infections, black mouth, bad breath, prostheses that do not hold: ten years after the incriminated facts - from 2009 to 2012 -, many former patients still suffer from disorders, testifies Marc-André Ceccaldi, lawyer of several plaintiffs.

"85% of the victims are modest people who often benefit from complementary universal health cover (CMUC): Lionel Guedj promised them a star smile, today we talk about + Guedj smile + to evoke damaged teeth", he says. .

"My client will endeavor to demonstrate that, if there was undoubtedly negligence or recklessness, he never had the will to harm", explains Frédéric Monneret, lawyer for Lionel Guedj.

His client, he says, is “delighted to finally be able to explain himself” but “stressed by the stakes of the trial”.

A total of 322 former patients filed civil suits, alongside the Primary Health Insurance Fund (CPAM) of Bouches-du-Rhône, five mutuals and the National and Departmental Council of the Order of Dental Surgeons.

This extraordinary trial will be held until April 8 in a 400-seat room specially fitted out in a former barracks.

Falsified radios

The case began in 2009 with an investigation by the medical control of the Primary Health Insurance Fund (CPAM) of Bouches-du-Rhône after reports from an insurance company on dubious billings for prostheses, and from social security "abuse of care".

A CPAM13 complaint claiming damages of nearly 1.7 million euros was filed in 2011. A judicial inquiry was opened in 2012. Charged, the two men were released under judicial supervision.

They were banned from practicing by the Order of Dentists.

The conclusions of the administrative investigation, supported by several expert reports and the hearing of 170 patients, describe an organized system aimed at producing "a maximum of dental prostheses, benefiting from freedom of tariff".

According to several witnesses, "the father-son tandem was clearly led by Lionel Guedj".

"The first consultation systematically ended in a massive program of work involving devitalizing and crowning as many teeth as possible", notes the report, evoking "strong presumptions of voluntary degradation of healthy teeth".

"You came for two cavities and you left with all the teeth devitalized", testified during the investigation the dental assistant, Nadia Omar.

Lionel Guedj billed 28 times more crowns than the average of his colleagues, counted a dental consultant from Health Insurance.

In 2010, he was the leading dentist in France with a turnover of 2.6 million euros, against a departmental average of 180,000 euros.

The man has built up in a few years a real estate portfolio of 9.5 million euros, owned luxury cars, a 15-meter yacht.

Before the investigators, Lionel Guedj justified his success by long working hours and exceptional speed.

But for social security, to achieve such results in a normal activity would have required 52 hours of work a day.

Doctor Guedj has cut back on the quality of care, realizing for example "the installation of a definitive dental prosthesis, without any fitting" so this act requires no less than five steps".

Justice also accuses dentists of the disappearance or falsification of x-rays in an attempt to conceal false diagnoses.

© 2022 AFP