FRENCH POLICE UNCOVER 182,000 FAKE COVID HEALTH PASSES IN SIX MONTHS

Tue 21 December 2021:

Since their introduction this summer, French police have discovered 182,000 fake COVID passes, according to the interior ministry.

The latest figure is significantly higher than the government’s Friday estimate of 110,000 people.

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, according to his entourage, ordered the police and gendarmerie directors general to tighten controls last week.

Darmanin also revealed last week that 400 investigations into the sale of fake identification cards have been launched, including some involving health professionals.

“The problem with fake health passes is that it is often in complicity with real doctors or nurses,” explained Darmanin in a TV interview.

But “if people holding a fake pass acknowledge their mistakes and get vaccinated we shall be lenient, but if they don’t we’ll convict them,” the minister added on Twitter.

Some prison sentences have already been handed down, “particularly for pass users”, said Darmanin, who stressed that using or forging vaccination passes might entail up to five years in prison.

A Cantal doctor was given last week a six-month suspended prison sentence, plus a five-year ban to practice medicine and a fine of € 40,000 for issuing 35 fake health passes this year.

It comes at a time when the country is dealing with an increase in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.

France first rolled out its COVID pass in late July. It is necessary to visit restaurants, bars, cultural venues, large events and long-distance public transport.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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