The gendarmes first spotted a questionable Snapchat account “at the end of summer”, then managed to trace back to its owners, a man in his thirties who worked in the restoration and his companion, explained Bertrand Michel, head of the research section of Lille.
5,000 euros seized
They then identified their customers – who paid via Paypal – by working on “financial flows”, then checked with the Health Insurance that they did not have real health passes.
Three of them “for which we had the certainty that they had indeed had a false health pass” are summoned for an admission of guilt (the “guilty plea”).
The couple must be tried on December 17 by the criminal court for “forgery” and for entering false data into the Ameli information system.
A little more than 5,000 euros were seized from his accounts.
From forgers to crooks …
According to Mr. Michel, the suspects had “three ways to operate”.
“Initially, they had a good plan to have” clean “sanitary passes, registered in Ameli with the names of the clients”, he developed, either through complicit practitioners or by usurping identifiers.
But then, “they were content to tweak” QR codes “on paper, which can be used to go to the restaurant” but which did not correspond to the correct identity.
Finally, among the customers questioned by the gendarmes, some simply never received anything. “They have turned from counterfeiters into crooks,” Mr. Michel summed up.
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