This family man has no intention of giving up taking advantage of the social situation of the destitute. Forty-two years old, he has already served two prison sentences for fraud. The first was for 18 months, the second for 2 years. As soon as he was released from prison, he resumed his favorite activity: promising wonders to dreamers of El Dorado and unemployed people looking for a job to earn a living and provide for their families. This is why he is appearing, for the third time, before the Correctional Chamber of the Casablanca Court of First Instance. His victims are numerous, we learn from the minutes. Their number exceeds a dozen. But the deputy public prosecutor asserted, during his closing speech, that there are certainly others who have chosen not to resort to justice. The defendant, who is married with two children, insists that he hasn’t ripped anyone off since leaving prison the last time, that he has started trading and that he doesn’t know the people who have lodged complaints against him. He says he doesn’t know why he’s being accused of fraud. In his closing argument, the defense lawyer explains that his client is also a victim, not of a person, but of his past. However, his victims told the court that it was indeed he who had deflowered them. One of them revealed that she had paid the defendant the sum of twenty thousand dirhams in exchange for a promise to recruit her in a public establishment. A second said that she had given him the same sum in exchange for a work contract abroad. A third gave her thirty thousand dirhams to help her emigrate illegally to Spain. Promises and sums of money came thick and fast, but nothing concrete happened until the victims finally discovered that they had fallen prey to a notorious swindler who was finally found guilty for the third time.
Verdict: The defendant was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment, fined five thousand dirhams and ordered to pay damages to the victims, who had joined the civil action.
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