“Man sentenced to four years in prison for stealing cars and luxury clothing in regional crime spree”

A resident of Lower Goulaine was sentenced, Thursday, March 30, 2023, to four years in prison before the Nantes criminal court after stealing the two cars of a couple from Pont-Saint-Martin (Loire-Atlantique) twenty-four hours apart.

The defendant, aged 50, had indeed first stolen a Renault Mégane RS on January 5, 2021, in the absence of its owners, before returning to seize their Peugeot 5008, on January 6, 2021.

This double car theft was just one step in a regional “journey”according to the word of the public prosecutor: a man had been surprised the same day in the process of dismantling the rims of a BMW in the parking lot of the Piou garage in Beaupreau-en-Mauges (Maine-et-Loire), before being put to flight by a witness.

Ten gas bottles had also been stolen from the metal lockers of the Hyper U in Vertou (Loire-Atlantique), the gendarmes had pointed out.

The latter then made a link with the ram-car theft of a carton of cigarettes on January 9, 2021 at the Mick Bar in Saint-André-de-la-Marche (Maine-et-Loire), in the new town of Sèvremoine, near Beaupréau-en-Mauges, then with another theft that occurred the next day in Saint-Christophe-du-Bois (Maine-et-Loire) on January 10, 2021.

Thefts of luxury clothing

This time it was the flight of 157 prototypes Vuitton et Chanel in the Haspolo clothing workshop: they were found on January 13, 2021 in the defendant’s companion’s van, inside seven “huge garbage bags”. The loot had been valued “between 5,000 and 10,000 € public price”, according to the president of the court.

The search of the van had also made it possible to find “a not insignificant address” on “a piece of paper”, since it was the Beaupréau-en-Mauges garage.

And game ticket to scratch bought at the tobacco shop of Sèvremoine was also there. He had convinced the gendarmes that the defendant had come to do a “scouting” prior to the theft of cigarettes.

On the day of his custody, the man was also in possession of a cigarette pack bought at the tobacconist: a “number” makes it possible to “trace” the origin of each packet of tobacco, explained the president of the court. In this case, it had been “made in Poland” before transiting “through the Netherlands” and finally arriving in Sèvremoine.

The gendarmes had also been able to make a link with an attempted theft within the jewelry store of the Leclerc shopping center in Plérin (Côtes-d’Armor), near Saint-Brieuc, thanks to video surveillance images.

The two vehicles burnt down in Les Sorinières

The Renault Mégane RS and the Peugeot 5008 of the couple from Pont-Saint-Martin had finally been burned down during this “journey”: the two vehicles had been set on fire in the town of Sorinières (Loire-Atlantique).

The gendarmes were able to incriminate this theft to the defendant after a motorist made them a “refusal to comply” in Basse-Goulaine.

They noticed that the vehicles were equipped with fake license plates stolen from cars parked in Jugon-les-Lacs and Plénée-Jugon (Côtes-d’Armor), on the road from Rennes to Saint-Brieuc.

The man – who once lived in La Chevroliere but who lived at the last news in Basse-Goulaine – has however “never in his life driven a Mégane RS”, he certified this Thursday March 30, 2023 at the Nantes criminal court.

If he went “to get lost in Saint-André-de-la-Marche to buy cigarettes”, in the words of the president, it was only to go “to hunt for old wood or old scrap metal”, he certified. “I sometimes go antiquing to Le Mans,” he also said.

The hood which had been found “well concealed” in his companion’s van, according to the president, was in fact only used for “doing motocross” on the former Tougas dump, in Saint Herblain.

Seventeen convictions in thirty years

From a judicial point of view, the man is well known to regional justice: his criminal record already includes seventeen convictions in the space of thirty years.

Cigarettes are apparently his cute sin: the defendant had already been sentenced to nine years in prison in 2015 for having stole 75,000 packs of cigarettes in a company in Lorient (Morbihan), then to six years in prison in 2022 for having robbed in Nantes (Loire-Atlantique) a van carrying 850,000 € worth of cigarettes.

On the side of the civil parties, the lawyer for the couple from Pont-Saint-Martin recalled that his clients had had “the entirety of their property closed” following the theft of their cars and that ” the idea of ​​moving is always present in their minds.

Their two cars were in fact used as a “war vehicle” by the defendant and his accomplices to “hit” other victims, said the public prosecutor was convinced, despite denials from the principal concerned.

“Still happy that the McDonald’s has not been robbed”

The defense lawyer had deplored that “everything is a pretext for accusation” in this case. “Still happy that the McDo was not robbed: we also found a receipt inside his van”, had squeaked Me Samy Robert.

“The gendarmes still suspected a tracking: they went to see the CCTV images, to see if he had his nose in the air,” added the defense lawyer.

But the Nantes Criminal Court finally followed the prosecutor’s requisitions by sentencing his client to four years in prison, with warrant of depositand rejecting his request for confusion with a previous sentence.

He was only acquitted of the refusal to comply in Basse-Goulaine, the court not having the certainty that he was driving the car.

On the civil level, the defendant will also have to pay €17,000 in compensation to the Pont-Saint-Martin couple and their insurer, €500 in damages to each of the two victims for their non-pecuniary damage and €900 for their legal costs.

He has ten days to appeal this judgment to the Rennes Court of Appeal.

Source: ©PressPepper

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