During a trip to France with two partners in a case involving his vehicle purchase / resale company in Poland, the defendant was arrested by the Nancy Customs Brigade in Colombey-les-Belles on 19 October 2019. During the arrest , the customs officers had seized 32,790 euros and 4,430 zloty (Polish currency) in cash from the vehicle that the man had not declared to customs before the trip. However, European law requires that any international transport with a cash amount exceeding 10,000 euros must be declared at a customs establishment.
During his sentence on Tuesday before the Bar-le-Duc criminal court, the accused first explained that he was “perfectly aware of the law” and that he had “already made this trip a dozen times for commercial business”.
Unconvincing arguments
According to him, the 32,000 euros seized would actually be his, but shared with the two partners present to be legal. However, even divided into three, the sum remains above the authorized ceiling.
Following an unfortunately unconvincing first version, the Polish entrepreneur then tried another explanation: “We had brought back 10,000 euros each. The money is not mine alone ”. An attempt at justification which, however, went against his bank account.
In fact, during the inspection of the latter, the investigators found the trace of a levy of 30,000 euros in Poland, the day before the arrest of the accused in France. According to him, the sum withdrawn from his account would in fact be left at his home in Poland in the event that a lawsuit arose in his absence.
Once again shaky arguments that did not deceive the court, which sentenced the accused to a suspended fine of 3,000 euros, in addition to the return of his 4,430 zlotys. Instead, only 10,000 euros of the 22,790 euros seized by customs officers were returned to him.
