The former agent of the National Center for Forest Property had taken advantage of his position to cut and resell wood from plots that did not belong to him.
The Thionville Criminal Court (Moselle) sentenced on Monday January 23 to two years in prison, including one year suspended, a former leader of a forestry group accused of having cut and resold wood from private plots not belonging to him, for a loss of half a million euros.
The defendant also has the obligation to work, to pay damages to the civil parties as well as the sums due to the Public Treasury.
Misappropriation for the benefit of a private company
For several years, he had used his function as an agent of the National Forest Property Center (CNPF) to acquire plots from around fifty private owners.benefitof his forestry group company, when he claimed to be advising them.
Read alsoIn Brittany, oyster farmers and police hunt down oyster thieves
The court found that the forester had thus “maintained a confusion which had allowed the fraudulent mediation“. Of the “maneuvers“that the court estimated”determiningto trick owners.
During the trial in October, the prosecution had requested three years in prison, two of which were suspended. The defendant apologized and explained that he had been pushed by the “rising wood prices» and by the request of timber traders who «put pressure on him“.
Difficult compensation
“We don’t know how it’s going to be for all owners: some are 100% compensated, others not. For those who would not be compensated, we will find solutions, we will not leave people like that“, reacted Didier Daclin, president of the Federation of Private Forestry Unions of Moselle, at the end of the hearing.
The latter said to himself,generally satisfied with the judgment rendered“. “What matters is that justice by this conviction put a stop to him and sent a warning to his little friends, because he was not alone“, he underlined. Me Annie Chilstein-Neumann, lawyer for several civil parties, also welcomed the criminal conviction as well as the additional sentences imposed. The former forester is thus prohibited from exercising public functions for five years and from managing for ten years.
The judge also ordered the confiscation of all seals, i.e. 600,000 euros worth of equipment, fine wines and vehicles.
The defence, which judged the sentence “heavy“, plans to appeal. “The reasoning of the court does not make it possible to consider that there would be a fraudulent maneuver as it must be understood in the offense of fraud “, estimated Me Yves Stella.
HAVEALSO – Theft from the Dresden museum: most of the loot recovered three years later