A firefighter and the physiotherapist are suspected of having forged 123 false negative Covid tests and health passes in Montpellier. The two men admitted in court that they had fabricated these false documents, without financial compensation, to allow wealthy friends to travel.
The 31-year-old firefighter and the 43-year-old physiotherapist masseur were brought on Wednesday December 15 in Montpellier before the criminal court for immediate appearance for fraudulent access to an automated data processing system, falsification of administrative documents and usage.
The day before, during their police custody, the firefighter had admitted to having used the login details of a physiotherapist friend – with his consent – in order to provide health passes free of charge to knowledge.
He had thus given his two parents health passes in order to allow them to attend the Avignon festival.
The physiotherapist, also placed in police custody Tuesday, December 14, admitted having communicated his login details to the firefighter while maintaining that he believed that self-tests had indeed been carried out.
But, according to Fabrice Bélargent, the public prosecutor of Montpellier, “the investigations carried out subsequently made it possible to establish a co-action of these two people and the provision to their entourage of a hundred false attestations of negative tests carried out by the physiotherapist and which made it possible to generate health passes.”
The beneficiaries of the false documents have been identified: they are 35 people from their friendly entourage, rather wealthy people who have benefited from these false tests, sometimes on several occasions, to go abroad.
“Thus, a friend of the physiotherapist benefited from a false negative PCR test to attend the Monaco Formula 1 Grand Prix with him. Many false certificates were generated with a view to departing on vacation or returning to the national territory. ” explains the public prosecutor of Montpellier.
The facts go back from November 2020 until August 2021. The investigation carried out by the cyber group of gendarmes from the Montpellier research section made it possible to flush out all the offenders one by one.
All have already been summoned to court in recent weeks: they have been sentenced to fines ranging from € 600 to € 3,000.
According to the investigation by the gendarmes, no sum of money was exchanged for these false tests. But they were labeled in the name of two laboratories which lodged a complaint and became a civil party.
The healthcare professional admitted to using fake PCR tests for himself, his partner and a friend in November 2020 for a pleasure trip to Brazil.
Fabrice Bélargent,
public prosecutor in Montpellier
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Their lawyers have asked for time to prepare their defense.
Delay granted by justice. While awaiting their trial scheduled for February 9, they were placed under judicial supervision with a ban on exercising their functions.
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