For four years, from 2017 to 2020, Maryse Mercier billed tens of thousands of fictitious procedures to 34 different health insurance funds. Very precisely, she declared 81,449, embezzling more than a million and a half euros in the process. On Wednesday, the Marseille nurse was sentenced to five years in prison, including two years for this “large-scale fraud”.
However, she escapes detention since her sentence will be served under an electronic bracelet. The sixty-year-old will also have to pay a fine of 30,000 euros and reimburse Social Security for the sums unduly received.
Thanks to vital cards provided by accomplices and certificates issued to migrants, the 67-year-old liberal nurse believed for a long time to slip through the cracks. In her fall, she dragged her husband, sentenced to twelve months in prison for “receiving stolen goods”, even though he claimed to be unaware of the fraud committed by his wife.
“Very few regrets”
The court noted that the defendant had “expressed very little regret” at the hearing, noting that since the 2000s, Maryse Mercier had had trouble with Social Security for overpayments, overbilling and fictitious acts.
However, she tried to defend herself by explaining that she had acted under the duress of co-defendants and henchmen, even mentioning a brief confinement and incessant nighttime calls. No matter, the judges considered that she was indeed the main “instigator” of this scam.
Two of his accomplices, responsible for collecting Social Security documents, were sentenced to three years in prison, two of which were suspended.