• A solidarity fund had been set up for companies impacted by the coronavirus crisis.

  • The public finance directorates were responsible for managing this fund and monitoring payments.

  • In the North, a first court decision sentenced a craftsman who had defrauded to improperly obtain public money.

A corona-resquilist in court.

In order to help companies penalized by health restrictions to fight the coronavirus epidemic, the government had set up a solidarity fund.

Among the many companies that have benefited from it, Public Finance has been able to detect cases of fraud.

This is particularly the case of a northern craftsman who was caught by the courts.

He is the first condemned in the department for such facts.

According to data provided by the Hauts-de-France regional public finance department (Drfip), 78,000 companies in the Nord and Pas-de-Calais regions shared 1.4 billion euros from the Covid solidarity fund. since the start of the coronavirus epidemic.

However, these public credits were not granted without conditions and the Drfip, manager of this fund in the region, kept an eye on things.

This is how the civil servants of this administration were able to detect a certain number of cases of fraud, like that attributed to a “repairing craftsman”.

This first condemnation of a long series?

The manager of the company submitted two requests for payment from the solidarity fund during the year 2020. But the public finance officers easily determined that, to benefit from it, the craftsman had "declared a turnover wrong”.

To justify his declaration of a decline in activity, the respondent had also asserted that he was concerned by the ban on welcoming the public.

Checked, that was not the case.

After having carried out several checks to substantiate its doubts, the Drfip finally filed a complaint with the court of Valenciennes to recover the sums unduly received by the craftsman.

The entrepreneur finally appeared in court in early March.

At the hearing, he admitted the facts and was sentenced for "false declarations" to pay more than 20,000 euros to the Public Treasury "in compensation for material damage".

He also received an eight-month suspended prison sentence.

If this conviction is the first in the region, it certainly should not be the last.

Economy

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  • Fraud

  • Justice

  • Coronavirus

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