Le Figaro Marseille
What if, to encourage work to be done, it was enough to invent new standards for a vulnerable public, such as the elderly?
This is the well-oiled system brought to light by investigators which led to the managers of two companies specializing in renovation work on individual houses being placed in police custody on January 17 in Marseille.
In a press release which reveals this information, the Marseille prosecutor's office specifies that the victims, owners
"often elderly and vulnerable"
, were approached
"by salespeople from these companies who claimed the entry into force of new standards and the updating of a national file of houses more than ten years old, in reality non-existent.
They offered these owners
“to carry out a free inspection of their home, at the end of which they announced the urgency of work supposed to preserve the integrity of the building.”
“In order to convince the person to sign a work order form, the salespeople, with the agreement of their boss, granted them a preferential price in exchange for the immediate payment or signing of an authorization collection,
adds the prosecution.
Deprived of their right of withdrawal by signing a waiver in return for the discount granted, consumers incurred on average the sum of 8,000 euros, which could even reach several tens of thousands of euros.
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Nearly a million euros seized
During the searches, nearly 800,000 euros were seized from the bank accounts of suspected natural and legal persons, as well as four cars.
The investigation was carried out by the Marseille interministerial group and the services of the general directorate for competition, consumption and fraud repression, the departmental directorate for the protection of the populations of Bouches-du-Rhône, as well as the digital investigations of the national investigation service.
The suspects were released and the investigation continues.
“Consumers who believe they have been victims of similar practices have the possibility of making a report on the
SignalConso platform,
”
recalls the prosecution.