Figure of the great banditry, Pascal Payet, nicknamed the "king of the escape by the air", was sentenced Thursday to five years in prison by the judicial court of Paris for "attempted extortion in organized gang". The eleven other defendants, including a woman, who were also tried for attempted extortion in an organized gang and criminal association, handed down sentences of 30 months to seven years' imprisonment, most often suspended for the lightest sentences, and acquittal.
One of the six defendants who appeared free did not appear at the hearing and the presiding judge ordered an arrest warrant after handing him down a two-year sentence. The prosecutor had requested six years in prison against the former robber multi-recidivist, wearing gray T-shirt and thin glasses, who will celebrate his 60th birthday in early July. Stunned by the decision, the defendant turned to his girlfriend in tears. "Justice takes revenge. We murdered him," she told an AFP journalist outside the courtroom, in response to the five-year prison sentence, without a suspended sentence.
'Paying your debt'
The extortion attempt dates back to September 7, 2020. That evening, three unarmed men including Pascal Payet approach a young businessman, also known as a poker enthusiast, who is dining in a chic Parisian restaurant. One of the men who addresses the young man by his first name, Kevin, asks him 400,000 euros to "ensure his protection". They give Kevin D. 48 hours to raise the money and advise him to "not do the smart thing."
At the hearing, Pascal Payet explained that his role had been to try to settle a dispute between two individuals, one of whom owed a large sum of money to the other. According to his version, he simply asked Kevin D. to "pay his debt" before backtracking the next day "on the advice of a friend" who would have sniffed a confusion. For the prosecution, Pascal Payet's reversal, telling Kevin D. that he had no more debt 24 hours after threatening him, is due to the realization that Kevin D. had contacted the police.
Dismantling the tape
The police quickly managed to dismantle the gang, uncovering another extortion attempt by the same team against a couple from northern France. Pascal Payet has already spent 28 years behind bars. He was granted parole in 2019 before returning to prison after his arrest in connection with the case in November 2020.
His record includes nine convictions for burglary, conspiracy and armed robbery, one of which resulted in the death of a cash courier in 1997. "This criminal past at all levels, it's a disaster. For me, my loved ones and for the victims of my actions," he said at the hearing.
Spectacular escape
Originally from Montpellier, he caused a sensation in July 2007 by escaping by helicopter from the prison of Grasse (Alpes-Maritimes), where he was serving a 30-year sentence for the murder of the cash courier. He thus renewed a spectacular escape already by air, in October 2001, from the prison of Luynes (Bouches-du-Rhône). His escapes lasted a year and a half the first time, two months in 2007.
In April 2003, while on the run, he had escaped from Luynes prison, still by helicopter, three of his "friends" prisoners. The four thugs were arrested less than a month later in Vaucluse.