At Rodez magistrates court a couple of British people were convicted of "travail dissimulé" - ie working on the black. The defendant known a "PP" and his wife "NS" were both sentenced to 2-4 months in prison, suspended and he was fined 5000 euros.
It came to light when URSSAF, the body responsible for collecting social charges asked a British couple for invoices to cover work on their barn, valued at 50000 euros in total. The work had been done by PP who supplied no invoices and passed all the payments through the bank account of NS.
PP only used his account for his housing and unemployment benefit. And the account of NS showed payments out to "friends" - sub-contractors perhaps.
PP explained that as his company had gone into liquidation (leaving lots of unpaid bills) he could not find work so "had no choice" but to continue to trade on the black. NS denied that she was aware that the source of the funds was illegal. The court was not sympathetic.
No doubt there are plenty more ex-pats trying to exploit their position by working only for other compatriots and hiding their "cash in hand" income. The prosecutor asked for a fine of 45000 euros, so perhaps they got off lightly. Imagine what the Daily Mail would have made of that story had it been a French builder in England.
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