It was a real outcry that the prosecution had to face at the end of the trial which brought face to face buyers from the Pakistani community, pleading good faith, and the prosecutor, accusing them of having falsified documents to obtain bank loans.
Thirty-eight houses were thus acquired illegally, for an amount of more than six million euros (read our previous editions).
Against the buyers, the magistrate demanded prison sentences, with or without suspension depending on the case, heavy fines and, above all, the confiscation by the courts of ill-gotten gains, according to her.
Requisitions that made a large part of the defense lawyers jump. “Other court decisions, in similar cases, have found the buyers to be victims, not culprits. “The majority of buyers assured that the broker they had used would have made fakes without their knowledge.
“Was he fooled or was he in cahoots? »
In chorus, apart from a few exceptions when their clients had admitted to being aware that their file was falsified, the defenders demanded the release of their clients. This is also the case for the former director of the Vernouillet bank branch, implicated for complicity in fraud.
Throughout the investigation and the trial, the 65-year-old man always denied being aware that Tarik, the broker who brought him clients, had produced false documents to make their mortgage application more presentable.
“Was he fooled or was he in cahoots? This question, posed by Me Élise Meine, one of his two lawyers, sums up the whole issue of the case. For her, the first hypothesis is beyond doubt.
Imprisonment required against the banker at the Court of Justice of Chartres
The lawyer recalls that “more than half of the files were validated by its management, which did not detect the false documents”. “All the documents are digitized and accessible to the group director and the credit department,” adds Me Meine.
“Can justice be human? »
“Even the bail service, which carefully examines the same documents as those studied by the branch manager, saw nothing! »
The lawyer insists on the quality of the false documents falsified by Tarik:
“Bankers are not specialists in forgery in writing. And there was a whole chain of decisions that detected nothing! »
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For her part, Me Caroline Vabre, the other lawyer for the former branch manager, describes “a humanist banker, for whom this trial is a trial of shame! »
Me Vabre read the testimonies of former colleagues of the banking executive, whom all describe as a man “very professional and hardworking, crazy about work, who has crazy days”.
premium Court of Justice of Chartres: is this the trial of betrayed trust?
Incidentally, the lawyer launches a marked tackle against the bank, which claims more than six million euros in damages. “These are dishonest requests. »
The two lawyers demand the release of the former agency director. “It is his life that you are judging today, while there is no material element in the file which allows you to condemn him. Can justice be human? asks Me Vabre.
Finally, with regard to Tarik, the occult broker who admitted to having fabricated the false documents allowing the granting of credits, his lawyer recognizes: “He is a crook as we see him in the films: smooth talker and sure from him. »
On the other hand, he asks the judges to go below the prosecutor’s requisitions (prison). “It would be his social death,” he says.
The court will deliver its deliberation on July 29.
Jacques Joannopoulos
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