It is a phenomenon that is difficult to quantify but the reality of which is not in the slightest doubt. Since the introduction of the health pass, French people who are resistant to the vaccine, but wanting to keep life as normal as possible, have decided to turn to the black market. Sometimes for several hundred euros, they have acquired a false health pass. Others have obtained passes belonging to relatives in recent months.
According to the latest figures from the Ministry of the Interior, which date from before Christmas, at least 182,000 false passes have been identified in the country.
A figure that probably does not reflect the reality of the phenomenon, as certain cheats have undoubtedly remained under the radar of investigators.
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Some now bitterly regret it.
Doctors have seen patients arrive in intensive care units who, although they have a pass deemed valid, have developed a serious form of the disease.
Patients who ended up confiding, revealing never to have been vaccinated.
Some eventually succumbed.
The government, by introducing the vaccine pass, wanted to give a chance to all those who would like to respect the law. Of course, the executive intends to strengthen the sanctions against fraud. But he also decided to offer offenders a real repentance device. A sort of amnesty, which will come into force upon the promulgation of the text. A very large part of the majority deputies tabled an almost identical amendment, which should therefore give way to the government version.
How will this repentance work?
It is aimed at people who have committed offenses.
It can be a question of a "lack of knowledge of the obligation to present a pass, of the presentation of a pass belonging to another or even of the use of a false pass", we can read.
Recall that until now, the use and manufacture of a false health pass were punishable by a fixed fine of 135 euros, increased to 1,500 euros in the event of a repeat offense and to 3,750 euros and six months' imprisonment if this recurrence occurred within 30 days.
This fixed fine of 135 euros should be increased to 1000 euros at the end of the examination of the text.
Two scenarios must be taken into account in this device of repentance:
With regard to offenses committed after the entry into force of the law, public action will be extinguished as soon as their perpetrators are able to justify the administration of a dose of vaccine within thirty days following the commission of the this offense.
The procedure will then be closed without further action.
With regard to offenses committed before the entry into force of the law, the executive intends here also to allow them not to be punished.
In this case, the justification for the administration of a dose of vaccine, to extinguish public action, will be accepted within 30 days of the promulgation of the law.
This 30-day period will also apply to cases brought to court, in particular in the event that the offender has decided to contest his fixed fine.
The government, finally, wanted to take into account the case where the holder of a false health pass would not be eligible for vaccination simply because he would have contracted the disease during the 30-day period.
In this case, the offender is invited to perform a virological test able to justify the infection.
So the 30-day period will be suspended until the latter is able to receive his dose of vaccine.
On the condition, of course, that the amendment is indeed voted on.