Discussions resumed, slowly but surely, Tuesday, January 4, in the hemicycle of the National Assembly on the text establishing the vaccination pass. In particular, the bill provides for tougher penalties for the possession of a false pass.
In the followingnoon, during the session of questions to the government, Gérald Darmanin, the Minister of the Interior, announced that the police had brought to light “192,483 false health passes as of December 30”. He further added that the police had proceeded, on December 30, to « 1 919 verbalisations » concerning the fact of lending his health pass to a third person. On December 20, the Interior Ministry reported 182,000 false passes.
From now on, the possession of a false pass will be punishable by five years’ imprisonment and a fine of 75,000 euros. Presenting a pass belonging to someone else or transmitting a pass to someone else with a view to its fraudulent use will be punished by a fixed fine of 1,000 euros, compared to 135 euros today. The government tabled an amendment on the « repentance » : people with a false pass will not be penalized if they are injected with a first dose of vaccine within thirty days of committing the offense.
More than 400 investigations opened by the courts
The Minister of the Interior also specified that 435 investigations had been opened by the justice system. Thus, following the publication on December 31 of an article in the daily The Parisian in which its authors explain having obtained a false health pass from an organized network, the Paris prosecutor’s office has announced the opening of an investigation for “forgery and use of forgery”, entrusted to the brigade for the repression of astute delinquency (BRDA) of the Paris judicial police.
In the article by the “investigation unit” of Parisian, journalists tell how they were able to obtain, in less than twenty-four hours and for 200 euros on a prepaid card, a third dose of vaccine without having the product injected and thus extend the validity of a health pass.
The perpetrators came into contact with a fake pass trafficker through Telegram encrypted messaging. This one, explains the newspaper, did not need to usurp the identity of a doctor, as do other fraudsters, but benefits from the complicity of a practitioner within his family. According to the newspaper, this network has been working for eight months and “Industrially”one of the beneficiaries told them.
