Working for the energy renovation of buildings is good. Doing so without scamming its customers is better.
The company BDPA Rénovation and eight of its members are indicted and incur heavy sentences, while the opening of the trial is scheduled in four months.
8 defendants in 7 departments
Instead of humming, this limo rips off. BDPA Rénovation and its eight departmental directors will be the subject of a trial scheduled for July 2023 at the Limoges court (Haute-Vienne). Based in the departmental prefecture, BDPA Rénovation was the subject of an investigation opened by the Limoges public prosecutor’s office in September 2021. After a year and a half of investigation, the grounds for abuse of corporate assets, gang scam organized and deceptive or aggressive commercial practices were retained. Moreover, among the directors of departmental agencies of the company, three of them do not have a clean criminal record and therefore incur an additional penalty for “managing a company despite a legal ban”, according to information from I’UFC-What to choose. In total, they risk prison terms of up to ten years.
It must be said that the modus operandi, in tune with the times, was well oiled. Mainly targeting elderly people living in individual houses, the company BDPA Rénovation has thus opened offices in no less than eight departments, presenting itself to individuals as a “housing improvement monitoring body”. In France, this mission falls to a public institution, the ANAH (National Housing Agency).
Proof of the stakes around the flowering of scams on the grounds of energy renovation, an alert banner welcomes the Internet user on the official ANAH site, warning in particular against… door-to-door sales. According France 3 New Aquitaine“ commercial [de l’entreprise, ndlr] would have used “various stratagems to impose the work on mostly elderly victims (use of false documents, presentation of the work as imperatives” to achieve their ends.
A derisory sum found in the company’s accounts
Being absolutely not mandated by the ANAH, BDPA Rénovation nevertheless managed to defraud no less than 227 people, at least, since the information according to which all the victims would have filed a common complaint is not known. According to the prosecution, the damage is 1,726,475 euros, in 7 departments: Allier, Dordogne, Eure-et-Loir, Gironde, Haute-Vienne, Loir-et-Cher and Lot.
After being placed in police custody on February 23, 2023, eight defendants, executives and agency directors were placed under judicial supervision, with a ban on exercising their functions and bails of between 2,000 and 20,000 euros. As it stands, out of all the loot amassed, only 80,935 euros were seized at the end of this procedure.
Sources: UFC-Que Chosir , France 3 New Aquitaine
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