Maryse Mercier, 67, had, from 2017 to 2020, invoiced 81,449 fictitious acts to 34 departmental health insurance funds, causing total damage estimated at 1,524,538 euros. The court also confiscated eight properties acquired with the proceeds of the offense as well as sums seized from the couple's various accounts amounting to around 115,000 euros.
Her husband, who claimed to be unaware of the fraud committed by his wife - which the court said he did not believe - was sentenced to 12 months in prison for receiving stolen goods. "Since the 2000s, the liberal nurse had been in trouble with Social Security for overpayments, overbillings, and fictitious acts having not, at the time, only given rise to administrative sanctions such as deconvention," the court noted. The sixty-year-old claimed to have acted under the duress of co-defendants and henchmen, even mentioning a brief confinement and incessant nighttime calls.