He was tried with his clan and that of his first deputy for a fraudulent system of tax exemption via micro-parties. The mayor (DVD) of Roubaix, in the North, risks 18 months suspended imprisonment and three years of ineligibility. This is what the public prosecutor asked this Friday at the Lille Criminal Court, during the trial for organized gang fraud against fourteen people.
In this case, the prosecutor requested the heaviest penalties against the first deputy Max-André Pick and one of his relatives, Pascal Legrand, considered to be the organizers of the system: 18 months imprisonment including six with stay, 20,000 euros fine, ineligibility for three years and ban from all public office for five years.
“An example of the hijacking of democracy”
“This file is an example of the misappropriation of democracy and the rules for the financing of political life,” denounced the prosecutor. It is not bearable that elected officials abuse their position to evade the payment of tax. “Around 230,000 euros in donations, both tax-exempt and then partially or fully reimbursed to donors via screen associations between 2015 and 2020, are at stake.
The prosecutor recalled that the wife of Guillaume Delbar, Caroline, presented Thursday as the one who managed the finances within the couple, had admitted having mobilized their relatives in 2015 for the financing of the campaign, after a refusal of a bank loan.
“Money is not my engine”
“Money is not my engine,” Guillaume Delbar said in court, pleading good faith in this case. While he heads “a town with a budget of 195 million euros, it is a little surprising that the mayor is not interested in the methods of financing his own electoral campaign. It is the sinews of war, ”pointed out the prosecutor.
How can one think that the defendants believed in good faith the legal system with “an advantage which exceeds the amount of the donation”? asked for his part the lawyer of the State, civil party in the case, Xavier Normand-Bodard.