He had rented apartments in a building hit by a serious and imminent peril. Tuesday, June 29, a Marseille mason was sentenced in Marseille to one year in prison. The criminal court also ordered Abdelfateh Benhalilou, 61, a fine of 10,000 euros and a ban on buying property with a view to renting it out for five years.
SARL Marseille Molière, belonging to Mr. Benhalilou and his relatives, owner of this building located on the Place de l’Opéra, in the city center, was fined 150,000 euros, an amount withheld, explained the president of the tribunal, Marie-Pierre Attali, in view of the 138,232 euros in rent “Illegally collected” from July 2017 to November 2019.
The court, however, ruled out the confiscation of this building, a measure that the law normally makes mandatory. This derogation has been taken “Due to the work carried out”, which had enabled the peril to be lifted in May.
“Marseille roulette”
In the building, the apartments had been renovated but the risk of the staircase collapsing had led, in April 2017, the Marseille town hall to have the building evacuated urgently and to prohibit any occupation.
The apartments had been offered on a rental platform between individuals from November 2017, after the installation of shoring and some insufficient work. The investigation had estimated that 2,301 customers had spent in this building, with 1,213 overnight stays reserved on the rental platform.
“It is as if for two and a half years, he had played Russian roulette, Marseille roulette”, launched the prosecutor Jean-Yves Lourgouilloux, who had required four months in prison to serve under electronic bracelet and a fine of 80,000 euros against the LLC. At the hearing on June 15, Abdelfateh Benhalilou confessed to having rented in order to have the means to finance the work. “It was to rehabilitate him, not to go to a restaurant”, had he defended himself, grateful “An irregular act without measuring the consequences”.
The memory of rue d’Aubagne
Despite the collapse, on November 5, 2018, of two buildings on rue d’Aubagne, a few hundred meters away, resulting in the death of eight occupants, Mr. Benhaliou continued to rent his building on Airbnb until November 2019, time when the daily The Marseillaise had revealed the facts.
Convicted for the offense of“Bad faith use of premises despite an administrative ban”, the two defendants were released for endangering others, the two offenses duplicating, said the court.