Hubert Falco was sentenced by the Marseille Criminal Court to a three-year suspended prison sentence and five years of ineligibility. He was found guilty of concealment and embezzlement of public funds.
The trial of the mayor of Toulon, Hubert Falco, ended this Friday, April 14. He is sentenced to three-year suspended prison sentence et five years of ineligibility immediately applicable. He thus loses his mandates as mayors and president of the Toulon Provence Mediterranean Metropolis.
The provisional execution of a penalty of ineligibility means that the penalty is immediately applicable, even in the event of an appeal on his part. According to the procedure, after a conviction for ineligibility accompanied by a provisional execution, the prefect of the Var must issue an order signifying the termination of the mandates of the local elected official concerned.
The confiscation of a sum of 55,000 euros seized from his account was also pronounced.
The 75-year-old man was accused of concealment and embezzlement of public funds. He would have used public money for his meals and to have his clothes washed for several years after leaving his post as president of the Var department. He was head of the department from 1994 to 2002. The Marseille criminal court found him guilty.
According to a former head of the kitchens of the department, who then committed suicide, the evening and weekend meals of the elected official and his wife were always prepared by the staff, with ingredients purchased from the budget of the departmental council. . These meals and ingredients were stored in a dedicated fridge, hence the name of this file: “Falco’s fridge”.
“I never denied that I had lunch in the cafeteria of the county council when I went up to work there”, explained Hubert Falco, heard on Wednesday. On the other hand, he strongly denied the accusations of meals prepared especially for him: “the survey proved that with my wife, we spent more than the national average on food! I like going to the shops, I like going to buy vegetables”, he defended himself.
In total, the cost of these private meals on the budget of the department, would have amounted to at least 64,500 euros over the period covered, between 2015 and 2018. Or 1,500 euros per month, according to the investigators.
For the president of the court Céline Ballerini, the “duty to set an example has been totally flouted” by the elected, ex-LR who joined the presidential camp, who left the court headlong and without a word.
This Friday morning, his lawyers had asked for release after the requisitions of the prosecution. The prosecutor claimed Thursday, April 13 “to immediately end the elective mandates” of the mayor of Toulon. The prosecution had qualified this case as “real scandal”.
“I am hurt“to the prospect “that they immediately take away what my constituents have entrusted to me”, declared Hubert Falco after the requisitions of the prosecution. He has served as mayor and president of the metropolis for more than 20 years.
-with AFP
