The numbers are impressive. In less than two years, the duration of the investigation by the Bordeaux customs services, no less than 308 lottos were organized in a small village hall in Saint-Antoine-de-Breuilh, near Port-Sainte-Foy in the Dordogne. The man who rented the room appeared before the Bergerac court on Tuesday, January 25 for having failed to declare a large part of the income for taxes.
Loto, fuel and refreshment bar
The retiree, a former marquee rental company, is now 83 years old. Dirty sneakers, threadbare anorak, he listens to the president with his head down. Between the Saturday evening lotto, the Quine every Sunday noon, the Friday and Tuesday lotto also in the summer, the man brought together all the local associations in his room, with great blows of posters and advertising stickers on his car. He billed the rental of the room, the fuel oil, he ran the bar. He also sent one of his friends to buy thousands of euros worth of vouchers in a nearby supermarket, in order to constitute the winnings for the lottery players.
Look at him, this gentleman. He has 800 euros of pension per month, he could not even afford the gasoline to come
700,000 euros in turnover over three years, according to the calculations of the investigators. Or 276,000 euros in lost revenue for the tax authorities, which will have to be reimbursed. “It’s math”, coldly asserts the lawyer who represents the interests of customs. The pensioner’s lawyer chokes: “Look at him, this gentleman. He has a pension of 800 euros per month, he couldn’t even afford gas to come.”
276,000 euros to be reimbursed
The customs officers, precisely, did not push their investigation to verify the heritage of the defendant, to find out if he took advantage of the money from the lottery. They only estimated the individual profit from the operation of the lotteries at 60,000 euros for the pensioner, “but we have nothing”, the prosecutor is surprised: “Has he bought a BMW? Does he have bullion in the bank? We don’t know. We’re not going to ask him for almost 300,000 euros, how is he going to pay?”
The pensioner seems overwhelmed, sheepish. He says he was unaware that he had done anything wrong. But in terms of tax crime, reimbursement of the amount due to the tax authorities is the minimum penalty. To avoid certain bankruptcy for the defendant, the court decided to reclassify the facts as concealed work, and to punish him with a six-month suspended prison sentence. He will also have a fine of 10,000 euros to pay, half of which will be suspended. But he will not have to repay the 276,000 euros in tax.