Guillaume Delbar plays big. In December 2021, the mayor (DVD) of Roubaix was sentenced by the Lille criminal court to six months in prison suspended and two years of ineligibility. He was being prosecuted for aggravated fraud, suspected of having participated in a fraudulent system of tax exemption via micro political parties. At the time, the elected official had appealed this decision, allowing him to retain his mandate as mayor pending the new trial which is to take place on Thursday.
The mayor of Roubaix will once again have to explain the donations made to micro political parties between 2015 and 2020. These donations were first made to a party, created for an electoral campaign in Roubaix. A part could then be transferred to the accounts of an association, under an agreement signed between the two parties. The said association was then responsible for reimbursing the donors up to 85%, “sometimes even 100%” of the donations, according to the president of the court.
“Example of hijacking democracy”
In the meantime, the donors had been able to exempt two-thirds of the sums initially paid to the political party from tax. In all, more than 230,000 euros have thus contributed to the mechanism. Between 2015 and 2020, the accumulation of tax credits could amount to up to 39,000 euros for some defendants.
During the hearing of the first trial, the prosecutor had denounced “an example of misuse of democracy and the rules for the financing of political life”. The appeal trial will confirm or not the court decision taken at first instance.
New penalty of ineligibility?
The month of June is likely to be decisive for the career of Guillaume Delbar. Apart from this appeal trial, justice must also rule, on June 8, on another case affecting the mayor of Roubaix. Judges must rule on ‘negligent embezzlement of public funds’
The hearing took place in April and the prosecutor had asked for an eight-month suspended prison sentence and a three-year ineligibility sentence against the mayor of Roubaix. In this case, the latter Delbar is being prosecuted for not having verified the use of funds given to an educational support association accused of religious proselytism.