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"They are nothing but amateurs,"
pleaded Me Virginie D'agostino, the lawyer for Eton Picari, one of the two defendants who appeared Monday at the Nice Criminal Court.
Amateurs with a particularly well-honed operating mode.
And for good reason, these two Albanian nationals, aged 30 and 36 and one of whom was under an obligation to leave French territory (OQTF), were tried for having committed seven burglaries and two attempts in the wealthy district of Gairaut, north of Nice, between January 1 and 12.
The latter were also suspected of having been supported by a third sidekick, a certain "Florian", of Romanian origin, who could not be arrested.
Alerted by the resurgence of thefts in the neighborhood, the police had set up a surveillance system last Thursday to catch offenders in the act, in flagrante delicto.
Their device was concentrated around the villa of a television personality, whose son had put the criminals to flight twice a few days earlier.
Less than half an hour after the start of their first hideout, the police had surprised two hooded individuals entering a fenced property.
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At the sight of the agents, the two intruders had immediately fled.
In his race, one of them had fallen, fracturing his knee.
The other had disappeared in a wood before being arrested at a bus stop, a gold bracelet on his wrist and the key to an Audi A4 station wagon in his pocket.
The car, owned by a Romanian national, was quickly found in the neighborhood.
The hotel room of the two men, rented from Villeneuve-Loubet, had also been quickly identified.
During the search, objects clearly coming from other wrongdoings had been discovered.
We
came very close to the Court of Assizes in this case!
»
Mutic during their hearings in police custody, the two Albanians acknowledged all the facts at the immediate appearance hearing, apologizing to each other.
“I'm sorry, I apologize to the victims.
It's not an excuse but my girlfriend is pregnant and my mother has cancer, the drugs are very expensive
, shyly defended Elton Picari, leaning on his two crutches, his left knee in a cast, grimacing in pain.
"I too want to apologize first, we damaged and traumatized the victims, it's something that at my age I should never have done.
Everything is true, I recognize the facts
, continued the other defendant, Gasment Ndou.
I live in Albania where I have a small business, I have a debt of 2500 euros that I have to repay, I came to France to find a job for a few weeks but I couldn't find it, so I did what I have done.
»
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In the act
Apologies that did not move for a single moment the civil party, represented by Me Carole Borghini.
The latter denouncing individuals who
"are not afraid of anything"
and who are
"in a lie from the start"
.
And to remind the court that the burglars were at the time of the events in possession of an iron bar:
"This weapon is an aggravating fact, we came close to the Court of Assizes in this case!"
For her part, the prosecutor, Sandra Verbruggen, requested three years in prison and ten years of prohibition of territory, recalling in particular the course of Elton Picari, sentenced in Marseille in December to eight months suspended, and again surprised in flagrante delicto less than a month after his release.
On the defense side, Me Carole Veil, Gasment Ndou's lawyer, insisted on the fact that at no time had the defendants shown violence, verbal or physical:
"There is no element of violence, neither of them.
As soon as they saw an owner, they took off.
They are men fleeing poverty in Albania.
I beg your indulgence."
The court finally condemned them to thirty months of imprisonment each accompanied by an expulsion from the territory at the end of their detention, with a ban on treading the soil of France for 10 years.
Elton Picari will also have to serve five more months due to the revocation of the previous reprieve.
Regarding the stolen objects, luxury leather goods, jewelry and clothing, some have been found, the other has already been sold, as the two men assured.
