A Nice man has been sentenced to four months in prison for fraud in Monaco.
The young man entered the Monaco courthouse freely Wednesday but emerged in handcuffs and sentenced to four months in prison for forgery and misappropriation of 12 cheques, in addition to reimbursing the plaintiff for €9,000.
The accused stood before the court with little remorse. He created a company called “Fullcharg”, specialised in data plans recharging for phones, but forged cheques while working for another company to the tune of €53,586.
The accused had an accounting job with BFM experts in Monaco and the first sign of trouble was in 2014 when his clients were pulled up for non-payment of VAT. Unperturbed, he claimed that the secretary had made an accounting error. In fact, rather than giving the cheques made out by his clients to cover their VAT payments to the Monaco tax authorities, he was paying them directly into his own company.
“It was easy to use other people’s money,” stated President Florestan Bellinoza. “Who would think of stealing from your employer’s clients? These people already trust you with their VAT returns.”
The accused tried to explain his actions. “I knew it was wrong but it was a quick way to get money.”
The judge cut him off, “Your clients handed you a cheque and you kept the money. You worked for less than a year at that business and you never responded to the arrest warrant.”
According to Me Roger Tudela, lawyer for the civil parties, “Everything went wrong when the manager started to work alone. The company’s president met a client who complained of lost cheques. From October, other clients complained that their VAT payments had not been received by the tax authorities, and the company president quickly suspected that the accountant was behind the €33,565 loss. The lawyer is also claiming €10,000 in damages
The prosecutor Alexia Brianti wonders if this is not the only company scammed.
As far as the accused was concerned, it was easy money… €53,000 over four months, but it quickly got out of hand. He was already known to the police for embezzlement, when he misappropriated 8 cheques to the amount of €20,000 with another company.
He’s not a big time criminal. He’s a petty thief. He’s expecting a child. Give him a reasonable sentence, requested his lawyer. The judge decided otherwise. (Source: Nice-Matin).