Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credit: Riccardo Milani / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP 3:52 p.m., March 21, 2024, modified at 7:35 p.m., March 21, 2024
The Aix-en-Provence public prosecutor's office announced this Thursday the dismantling of a network responsible for "national-scale" traffic fraud. Four people will be tried on April 12 out of the 19 people arrested during a large search on March 18.
A few hundred euros to obtain your highway code without passing it: a network responsible for fraud "on a national scale" has been dismantled and four people will be judged on April 12, the Aix prosecutor's office announced on Thursday. in Provence.
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19 arrests
During a large search, 19 people were arrested on March 18. Four of them, suspected of being the organizers, will be summoned before the criminal court in mid-April for organized gang fraud, money laundering and corruption. Two of them were placed in pre-trial detention pending this judgment, explains prosecutor Jean-Luc Blachon in a press release. Suspicions surrounding a “national-scale fraud” involving the managers of an examination center and a driving school in Bouches-du-Rhône had been reported to the Aix-en-Provence public prosecutor’s office in June.
During their investigations, the gendarmes then discovered a system which "potentially benefited more than 1,000 candidates who paid between 150 and 1,000 euros to obtain the highway code exam without having to take the tests", a explained the prosecution on Thursday. This fraudulent scheme, which allegedly grossed hundreds of thousands of euros, led investigators to seize real estate, cars and funds from bank accounts.
In its press release, the prosecution specified that those who have thus improperly obtained their code will be subject to prosecution or a report so that their driving license is withdrawn.