She had defrauded Social Security for more than a million and a half euros by invoicing tens of thousands of fictitious acts: a nurse from Marseille was sentenced on Wednesday to five years in prison, including three years suspended on probation.
The final part, two years in prison, will be served at home under an electronic bracelet, ordered the court which also imposed a fine of 30,000 euros.
In severe conclusions read by President Stéphanie Donjon, the court sanctions
“a large-scale fraud”
directed against
“this precious good that is free health”
by using the most fragile beneficiaries, holders of Medical Aid from State (AME) and Supplementary Universal Health Coverage (CMU-C).
Eight properties confiscated
Thanks to vital cards provided by accomplices and certificates issued to migrants, Maryse Mercier, 67, had, from 2017 to 2020, invoiced 81,449 fictitious acts to 34 departmental health insurance funds, causing total damage estimated at 1,524,538 euros. Sums that the court ordered her to repay.
The court confiscated eight real estate properties acquired with the proceeds of the offense as well as sums seized from the couple's various accounts amounting to around 115,000 euros. Her husband, who claimed to be unaware of the fraud committed by his wife - which the court said he did not believe - was sentenced to 12 months in prison for receiving stolen goods.
Described as the
“initiator of the scam”
, Maryse Mercier used the 100% social security cards to obtain undue payment and
“to make people believe in the reality of the acts, she then sent false prescriptions, in reality of gross forgeries
.
The court noted that she had
“expressed very little regret”
, noting that since the 2000s, the liberal nurse had had problems with Social Security for overpayments, overbillings and fictitious acts having not , at the time, only gave rise to administrative sanctions such as deconvention.
Two accomplices also sentenced
During the debates held in March, Maryse Mercier claimed to have acted under the duress of co-defendants and henchmen, even mentioning a brief confinement and incessant nighttime calls.
“Pressure yes, extortion no
,” ruled the president of the court.
Among the obligations of the probationary stay, the court set those of paying the fine, reimbursing the civil parties for the embezzled sums and also sentenced her in particular to a definitive ban on practicing the nursing profession. She will also have to pay 3,000 euros in damages to the National Council of the Order of Nurses in compensation for her moral damage. Two of his accomplices, responsible for collecting Social Security documents, were sentenced to three years in prison, two years of which were suspended.