Four managers of construction companies in the North have been indicted for fraud. They are suspected of having made dozens of clients believe that their work was eligible for state aid, the Lille prosecutor’s office said on Tuesday.
Last Wednesday, the judicial police of the North arrested the leaders of the companies “France Confort Habitat”, “Renovio”, “Home Innova” and “Eco Renouv”, within the framework of a judicial investigation for “swindle in an organized gang committed in the framework of a commercial activity on renewable energies”, specified the parquet floor in a press release.
A loss that exceeds one million euros
The defendants are suspected of having used “fraudulent maneuvers” to convince individuals to sign “contracts for renovation, insulation, supply of heating equipment […] or even roof repairs”, by “falsely claiming that they were eligible for obtaining state aid”.
The facts began in March 2014, indicates the prosecution, specifying that 74 complainants have been identified “at the current stage of the investigations”. According to the judicial police, the damage amounts to 1.4 million euros for these 74 victims.
“The investigators brought to light an elaborate system of fraud to the detriment of vulnerable people, forced to take out loans from credit institutions to finance work that was never carried out or badly carried out”, according to the PJ.
Two of the indicted leaders were placed in pre-trial detention, the other two under judicial control. They risk ten years in prison and a fine of one million euros.