Nineteen thefts, concealment or attempted thefts for one. Sixteen for the other. The list of offenses with which the two defendants are charged is as long as that of the victims identified by the investigation. The procedure highlights a repeated procedure. A team of burglars targets various stores, steals DIY equipment, flooring, bedding. They use stolen cars, which were later found burnt. Thefts are committed in Thionville, Fontoy, Guénange, Fameck, Terville, Hettange-Grande or Nilvange, between summer 2020 and March 2021.
Investigators managed to confuse two men using geolocation and surveillance. Videos show in particular two silhouettes which correspond to those of the defendants presented in the box of the Thionville criminal court on Tuesday. The procedure describes a large, fine. And a small, paunchy one.
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Silence
The two men, aged 29 and 43, chose to remain silent. They are currently sleeping in prison. They were sentenced to three years in prison last November by the Metz Court of Appeal for the same type of offence, committed with the same modus operandi, over a few days in March 2021. They had been arrested on a parking area. welcome of Travelers and judged in stride.
The Thionville Criminal Court is looking into facts that are certainly older but clearly linked according to the public prosecutor. He describes a methodical and nocturnal organization. He comes back to two ram-car break-ins, always with a stolen car, to steal a simple wheeled bicycle from a store. He makes the connection between all the stolen equipment and the construction of a family house in the Ardennes, searched by the authorities. He cites several times the judgment of the Court of Appeal of Metz which sentenced the two men prosecuted and he draws inspiration from it in his submissions.
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Judgment on June 14
“It is indeed the same file”, confirms the defense lawyer. So he asks why the file was cut up, why the court of appeal did not judge all the facts together. “We would have had only one conviction,” he simplifies. The lawyer pleads the confusion of sentences to prevent the prison sentence pronounced by the court of Metz from being added to the judgment of the court of Thionville.
The prosecutor requires three years in prison for the defendant who accumulates the most offenses. And two years for his friend.
“If my clients had been followed for months, if they were recognized very clearly, then why weren’t they arrested before? “, insists the defense.
The court will deliver its decision on June 14.
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