The LR president of the Var departmental council Marc Giraud was sentenced to five years of ineligibility, two years in prison suspended and 20,000 euros fine by the Toulon criminal court on Friday for embezzlement of public funds.
Ineligibility, together with provisional execution, must be applied even in the event of an appeal.
The elected official was prosecuted for having favored the fictitious employment of a collaborator while he was mayor of Carqueiranne near Toulon in the Var, between 2011 and 2015.
Marc Giraud appeals
The beneficiary of this job, Patricia Arnould, currently elected to the departmental council and first deputy of the municipality of La Crau, was sentenced to the same penalty as Marc Giraud on Friday, for "concealment of embezzlement of public funds".
She was accused of having received around 24,000 euros per year as an administrative agent attached to the office of the mayor of Carqueiranne, in addition to allowances for other local functions, when she was actually working for the department.
"In this case, there was no reason to condemn", lamented to AFP the lawyer of Marc Giraud, Me René-Pierre Guisiano, who intends to appeal.
"We did not expect that," added Patricia Arnould's lawyer, Me Romain Callen, for whom "the extent of the facts (which his client still disputes) does not justify such a sentence".
He also intends to appeal.
Policy
Jean-Christophe Lagarde in court on suspicion of fictitious employment
Policy
Suspicions of fictitious employment: Fabien Roussel heard in free hearing at the end of August
Justice
Misappropriation of public funds
Paca
Toulon