Nurse defrauds French state of €1.5 mn

A French court on Wednesday condemned a nurse to two years under house arrest for stealing more than €1.5 million from the national health insurance through claims for bogus appointments.

Published: 17 April 2024 17:43 CEST

An illlustration photo of a nurse preparing medicines at the pharmacy of a hospital in France (Photo by Fred DUFOUR / AFP)

The court in the southern town of Marseille found the 67-year-old guilty of a “large-scale scam” that notably exploited the details of vulnerable migrants.

From 2017 to 2020, she billed the national health insurance for 81,449 imaginary services, using the data of people eligible for fully refundable healthcare, including acquaintances and migrants on a charity list.

This allowed her to claim up to €1,524,538 from more than 30 regional national health insurance funds.

The court seized eight real estate properties she had acquired with the proceeds, as well as some money on her and husband’s bank accounts.

It sentenced her to two years under house arrest plus another possible three, depending on her behaviour, paying a €30,000 fine and reimbursing the damages.

It also forbade her from ever again performing her profession.

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The French Jewish community, the third largest in the world, has for months been on edge in the face of a growing number of attacks and desecrations of memorials.

“National police in Rouen neutralised early this morning an armed individual who clearly wanted to set fire to the city’s synagogue,” Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Police responded at 6.45 am to reports of “fire near the synagogue”, a police source said.

A source close to the case told AFP the man “was armed with a knife and an iron bar, he approached police, who fired. The individual died”.

“It is not only the Jewish community that is affected. It is the entire city of Rouen that is bruised and in shock,” Rouen Mayor Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol wrote on X.

He made clear there were no other victims other than the attacker.

Two separate investigations have been opened, one into the fire at the synagogue and another into the circumstances of the death of the individual killed by the police, Rouen prosecutors said.

Such an investigation by France’s police inspectorate general is automatic whenever an individual is killed by the police.

The man threatened a police officer with a knife and the latter used his service weapon, said the Rouen prosecutor.

The dead man was not immediately identified, a police source said.

Asked by AFP, the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office said that it is currently assessing whether it will take up the case.

France has the largest Jewish community of any country after Israel and the United States, as well as Europe’s largest Muslim community.

There have been tensions in France in the wake of the October 7th attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel, followed by the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Red hand graffiti was painted onto France’s Holocaust Memorial earlier this week, prompted anger including from President Emmanuel Macron who condemned “odious anti-Semitism”.

“Attempting to burn a synagogue is an attempt to intimidate all Jews. Once again, there is an attempt to impose a climate of terror on the Jews of our country. Combating anti-Semitism means defending the Republic,” Yonathan Arfi, the president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF). wrote on X.

France was hit from 2015 by a spate of Islamist attacks that also hit Jewish targets. There have been isolated attacks in recent months and France’s security alert remains at its highest level.