Meals prepared in the kitchens of the Var departmental council, his linen cleaned at the expense of the local authority, overtime paid to two agents dedicated to his service: these small advantages for which Hubert Falco, 75, are accused, earned him tried since Tuesday, April 11 for concealment of embezzlement of public funds. A high-risk legal test before the Marseille criminal court for the mayor (ex-Les Républicains and rallied to Emmanuel Macron) of Toulon, elected since 2001 and president of the Toulon Provence Méditerranée metropolis, who presents himself as the victim of a conspiracy. The Marseille prosecutor’s office has quantified the amount of these benefits – only for the cost of food – at 64,500 euros for the period over which it is judged, from April 2015 to December 2018.
“It’s very hard to appear when you have been exemplary all your life”, launched M.e Thierry Fradet, lawyer for the elected official, by opening this trial with a procedural guerrilla warfare aimed at having an investigation conducted by the Marseille public prosecutor’s office, qualified as “disloyal”. And, to hear it, full of fakes. Denouncing a plot hatched, according to him, by an UNSA trade unionist relayed by journalists, with a political opponent in the background, the lawyer demanded the cancellation of the procedure, which “does not meet the criteria for a fair trial”.
This trade unionist, against whom Mr. Falco filed a complaint for slanderous denunciation – it is still in progress –, and a kitchen employee – who committed suicide in March 2020 – had revealed, in 2018, the existence of a fridge dedicated to meals prepared for Hubert Falco by the community cooks for lunch and dinner, every day of the week, including weekends and public holidays. They explained that the accounting allocation of the foodstuffs used for these food productions consisted of two initials: « HF », for Hubert Falco, or « PH »for honorary president, a title he had obtained because of his duties as president of the departmental council from 1994 to 2002.
The denunciation also mentioned the overtime paid to one of the butlers of the institution, responsible for depositing the mayor’s clothes at the dry cleaners – not only the suits, but also the shorts, the tank tops, the pajamas – in the Toulon dry cleaners, holder of a public contract for the cleaning of formal linen for the department.
“He ate a bowl of rice”
The emails exchanged between the community service managers, read by the president of the court, Céline Ballerini, at the hearing, show that the meals prepared for the mayor were an open secret. A former director general of services had mentioned “the practice of fridges” with Marc Giraud, president of the departmental council. Another executive conceded that he did not report these facts “for fear of reprisals”. Three civil servants from the department were sentenced, in March 2022, to a suspended fine of 10,000 euros – with non-registration in bulletin n° 2 of the criminal record – at the end of a procedure of appearance on prior recognition of guilt .
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