Luxury shoes had been delivered to the Crillon hotel in Paris: a Nîmes man implicated in this scam

Me Laurence Bourgeon défendait le prévenu et a obtenu sa relaxe. Midi Libre – Archive Fabrice ANDRES

A Nîmes man, implicated in a fraud and a delivery of luxury sports shoes to a palace in Paris, was acquitted this Wednesday, April 10, by the Nîmes criminal court.

Geoffrey (first name has been changed) is already indicted in a case of money laundering and VAT fraud which exceeds €1 million ;€ and has still not been judged. But it was not this affair, nor his criminal record for traffic offenses, which brought him this Thursday before the Nîmes criminal court.

This father was being prosecuted for another scam in Paris. According to investigators and the prosecution, the Nîmes man was delivered, in September 2020, under a false name, to a room of the l&rsquo ;Hôtel de Crillon, Place de la Concorde, in Paris, a pair of shoes (sneakers) purchased for 1 700 € at Dior. The shoes were purchased in the name of Johan, a resident of Gironde. The latter, who was worried and placed in police custody, as part of the investigation, had never set foot in this luxury palace and hotel. He was exonerated.

The 1,700,euro was debited from the victim's bank account. The police and hotel security personnel traced Geoffrey, the Nîmes man who had already spent two nights at the Crillon, after being placed in pre-trial detention in this other case of VAT fraud entrusted to an investigating judge in Nanterre. His relatives would have paid the bill.

Heard this Wednesday by the president of the criminal court, Geoffrey who appeared free, no longer really remembers the date of his visit to this luxurious palace.

" I have never given a false identity"

" This story of shoes… It’s not me, protests, at the bar of the court, the defendant, defended by Me Laurence Bourgeon. And the hotel would have recognized me. I have never given a false identity… "

He lost his identity papers between 2019 and 2020. Or before this scam, says Geoffrey. His passport and identity card have since been redone.

" This file is empty, pleaded Me Laurence Bourgeon, the lawyer for Nîmes. Was it checked where he was at the time of the incident ? Or the contents of his phone ? No.&nbsp ;It’s hopeless and it’s serious. When he is heard by the police, his identity card was redone in 2019 but we do not believe him. No verification was done. He himself was the victim of identity theft. We know the name of the person who occupied room 226. The reservation had been prepaid. We have no trace of the delivery. The hotel did its own investigation and found nothing."< /p>

Geoffrey, who had already been convicted in a case of telephone fraud and possession of a weapon, was this time acquitted.

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