A 20-year-old woman has been sentenced to 18 months in prison by Monaco’s correctional court after being convicted of carrying out fraud against two residents over the first weekend of August, in the latest case of Monaco’s ongoing fake police officer scam. According to Monaco-Matin, which conducted the original reporting on the case, one of the victims had handed over several pieces of gold jewellery to the young woman.
The sentencing comes just weeks after Monaco’s Public Security Department sent 6,000 awareness letters to Monégasques and residents over the age of 75, following an earlier incident in which residents were defrauded of a million euros’ worth of jewellery by a fraudster posing as a police officer. In that letter, Public Security chief Eric Arella reminded residents that no bank, government office or police service would ever ask them to share confidential codes, make an immediate payment or transfer, or hand over valuables.
Despite that warning and widespread media coverage of the scam, two more residents were targeted using a near-identical method on Sunday, August 2. In each case, a fraudster posing as a police officer made initial contact by phone, claiming the resident had been targeted by fraud, before sending a young woman, also posing as a police officer, to the victim’s home to “secure” their belongings, typically bank cards or jewellery.
One victim, in her eighties, had only her bank card photographed before growing suspicious of her callers’ persistence. The second victim, aged 74, handed over several pieces of gold jewellery, her bank card, and even her house keys. It was her husband who, monitoring the couple’s home security camera remotely, alerted Public Security, leading to the immediate arrest of a young woman found in a vehicle overnight between August 2 and 3, in possession of the stolen items. Investigators later found that a further individual had been targeted in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat.
Appearing before the court on Wednesday under immediate trial proceedings, the defendant, identified as Meïssa H., appeared visibly shaken and tearful throughout the hearing. Her profile struck those in the courtroom: 20 years old, unemployed, with no prior criminal record, and originally from Strasbourg in France’s Grand Est region, a background similar to a young man sentenced in late June to the same 18-month term for comparable offences, an 18-year-old from Metz. Whether the two are linked to the same criminal network remains unclear.
Addressing the court, Meïssa H. described herself as a naïve young woman who had been drawn in by people promising easy money, before being threatened with the release of intimate videos of her and threats against her younger brother. Presiding judge Thierry Deschanels pressed her for details of how the network operated, and she described being recruited anonymously via Snapchat with the promise of a well-paid opportunity and an all-expenses-paid trip to the Riviera to transport money between locations. Despite initial hesitation, she agreed and brought two friends into the scheme. Those behind the operation paid for her to rent a car in Germany and book two properties near Monaco via Airbnb. She told the court that once she understood what was happening, she was threatened, and that during the second incident she had panicked and was on the verge of returning the victim’s belongings when she was arrested.
The judge appeared skeptical of her account, noting that while her phone records showed extensive communication with those directing the scheme, no evidence of threats appeared anywhere in the case file, and that she had nonetheless continued participating. He suggested her testimony amounted to a narrative of victimhood, and raised the possibility that she may herself have acted as a recruiter for the network.
Representing one of the victims, lawyer Lionel Dick told the court he was struck by the defendant’s apparent lack of empathy, and questioned the credibility of the excuses offered in court, arguing that his client, already in fragile health, had suffered significant psychological harm, and sought €3,000 in damages.
Deputy public prosecutor Mathias Marchand called for an 18-month prison sentence, a five-year ban from Monaco, and the confiscation of the defendant’s mobile phone, which had been seized as evidence. He argued that the criminals behind the scheme had exploited the fact that residents place complete trust in Monaco’s police force, and that while the defendant had admitted to the facts during police custody, she now appeared to be hiding behind claims of naivety and unproven threats. He described her as an active participant in a genuine fraud operation who was attempting to manipulate the court, adding that without her arrest, further offences would likely have followed.
For the defence, lawyer Eva Barilaro-Fabre said she did not seek to minimise either the facts of the case or the impact on the victims, describing her client as a devastated young woman full of remorse, and expressed her belief that this would be the first and last time she found herself in such a situation. Legally, she argued that her client had not personally benefited from the stolen goods and had not personally caused the victims’ financial loss, seeking an acquittal on the fraud charges and requesting the offence be reclassified as complicity in attempted fraud or criminal association, in hopes of securing a reduced sentence.
The court ultimately followed the prosecution’s recommendations, sentencing Meïssa H. to 18 months in prison, though it reduced the territorial ban from the requested ten years, and granted the victim’s request for €2,000 in damages.