A couple seems to be living the good life in Cap d’Agde (Hérault) without paying a penny. According to the testimonies of owners and an agency collected by France Bleu Hérault, they sign fake checks to spend a few weeks in accommodation by the sea. They have repeated the method at least three times since 2020. Two owners of seasonal residences filed a complaint at the end of June, after the bank refused checks signed by the couple.
“He told me that his wife was sick”
Thierry, who lives in Paris, owns a studio with a large terrace close to the sea in Cap d’Agde. Thursday, June 10, the caretaker of the residence sees disembarking this couple of about 70 years old, the woman has a blonde bob, the man a white goatee. They “present well”but are visibly in a panic.
“They explained to him that they had a dilapidated apartment that they had to leave urgently because the balcony was going to collapse”, explains Thierry, who agrees to help them out with a rental contract. At the request of the couple, he agrees to lower his price. “I was confident, Thierry explains. And I was a bit panicked for them, because he told me his wife was sick.”
The couple have your furniture delivered in another apartment in the same residence, which belongs to Françoise, an owner from Drôme who has also agreed to help them out.
Checks refused by the bank
Before moving in, the couple signs a rental check and a deposit check. The check appears on Thierry’s bank account, but ten days later, the bank opposes and withdraws the 650 euros payment. “They obviously surprised them”he said.
According to Thierry, “they make checks by presenting an identity document, so that we are not suspicious, then they make an opposition as if they had lost the checkbook”. Thierry, just like François, restarted it several times, “but each time the shield was ‘my wife is unwell'”. The Parisian finally discovers that their account is empty. The two owners do not hope to recover the money, but have filed a complaint anyway.
“They even went so far as to change the locks”
To alert other owners, Thierry shared his testimony on a Cap d’Agde Facebook page. A real estate agency contacted him, explaining to him that he had been the target of the same couple in the middle of the summer season. They rented an apartment the whole month of August but paid with a checkbook linked to a closed account.
“These people have given us no more sign of life and have even gone so far as to change the locks of the accommodation that we have in management, explains the agency by email. We had to call a locksmith in order to be able to enter the accommodation again”. The director of the agency finally passed the husband on the street, and arrested a policeman who was not passing there. The husband ended up paying by leaving an envelope in the agency box.
Following this story, Thierry will no longer house anyone, “old or not old, on the street or not on the street”, before receiving a bank transfer. Apart from those of Thierry and Françoise, the Agde police station does not register any other complaints.