Suspended prison sentences of 5 to 12 months and a ban on practicing for 3 to 5 years were required on Friday December 9 in Nice against health professionals who had issued nearly 500 false negative Covid tests.
The criminal court judged for “
forgery and use of forgery, fraud and endangering others
” a pharmacist, a biologist and a doctor working for a laboratory and accused of having issued negative tests without carrying out the analyzes.
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The investigation began after a denunciation to customs and 497 officially negative tests, issued in September and October 2020 to patients from the Eurofins laboratory in Montauroux (Var), Peymeinade and Nice (Alpes-Maritimes), discovered during searches.
The main defendant, Romain Zanchi, at the head of the laboratory, "
pharmacist biologist, Bac +10
", is accused of having "
falsified
" the results for 413 tests, while the subcontractor responsible for carrying out the analyzes n hadn't had the time and the means to make them.
It was, according to their defence, under pressure from patients worried about not seeing their results arrive that the three men, eight to ten days after the samples, had decided to declare them negative.
“
After 48 hours, the samples were no longer usable
,” explained Romain Zanchi.
"
In addition, according to the doctrine at the time, patients were no longer contagious after 7 days
," he added, contesting the endangerment of the health of customers.
Still under judicial control, Romain Zanchi, unemployed for 2 years, appealed his radiation decided by the Order of Pharmacists.
The lawyers pleaded for release
The three men are also accused of having nevertheless asked the Primary Health Insurance Fund (CPAM) for reimbursement of the tests, when the analyzes had not taken place, for a damage estimated at 25,500 euros.
“
I should have put them in free
”, admitted Romain Zanchi.
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Guillaume Collet, 45, doctor, who ran a Eurofins branch in Nice and entered 43 false negative results, spoke of "
a surge of violence that fell on my laboratory
", going as far as death threats .
“
So I had to make constrained decisions
,” he added, ensuring that he was “
not a fraudster
”.
For the third defendant, Gérard Zanchi, Romain's father, it is also "
because the competition was going faster
" that the results were falsified.
For the public prosecutor, “
health professionals deliberately falsified results.
The law, ethics, the precautionary principle, everything dictated different behavior
”.
The defense lawyers pleaded for release and the decision was reserved for February 20.