Justice. Abuse of Confidence and Weakness: 18 and 12 months required

Two defendants appeared on Tuesday at the bar of the Thionville criminal court. The first, a 41-year-old Thionvillois, is a multi-card crook. He passes himself off in turn as a real estate broker, company manager, uses his owner’s bank details to subscribe to Canal Sat, or takes advantage of the generosity of an octogenarian to extract more than € 30,000 from him.

The second, 51, from the Travelers’ community, is being prosecuted for concealment of property and fraud, in connection with the first. He is accused of three offenses against eight for the Thionvillois. There is in particular a scam committed against a Polish resident involving an automobile, a German sedan in this case. The youngest of the defendants promises to hire him as a driver in his company if he sells his car. This is where the second defendant appears who will buy it back, but well below its price. Obviously, the poor Polish driver will not touch the shadow of a euro of the transaction …

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“He pressed him to indecency”

But what aroused the most emotions during the hearing, it is the way in which the Thionvillois took advantage of his neighbor, an 83-year-old woman, described by her lawyer as “a nice lady.” He told her that he was having financial difficulties, that he was in debt. And since she has a good heart, she took pity on him. But he then squeezed it, to the point of indecency. »He will repair and equip his vehicles at the expense of the octogenarian, or still taking advantage of his generosity to take out telephone subscriptions in his name. She also allegedly signed seven checks for him valued at over € 30,000. Not to mention the withdrawals made using his bank card. “Today my client, who had a good pension, is banned from banking”, laments the lawyer.

For the public prosecutor, “this man, who does not work, accumulates debts, is ready to do anything to make money. Until defrauding his own family, like his mother-in-law who will have the naivety to lend him his credit card ”. He requires 18 months of imprisonment, 6 of which are accompanied by a probationary suspension, against “this man already prosecuted for similar facts”.

The second defendant will be entitled to a little more leniency: 12 months in prison fully accompanied by the suspension. “He is a little behind in this case,” said the representative of the prosecution.

The judgment was reserved on January 26.

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