Millions of Inheritance, Sports Cars Targeted and Critical Surgery test Magistrates’ wisdom

Is Joy-Riding Stealing? The Court Will Decide

It was just too tempting for the three young men from Nice – the opportunity to try out luxury sports cars outside a Monaco car sales room on a Sunday. Craftily they found their way into the parking area via a pedestrian access to a nearby residential building. Except their suspicious behaviour caught a resident’s attention who called the police. To the delight of the “hooligans” the car keys were in the car ignitions, so they joy-rided about in the parking area for 90 minutes before making off with some minor accessories, sun glasses and a telephone cable. The police pounced on them before they could escape the frontier. But charges of attempting to steal the cars wouldn’t stick. Joy-riding is not stealing. But stealing the accessories yes – that’s a crime, even though the value of the theft was low. The dockets of two of the men were thick with past crimes involving theft and drug offenses and worse. And one of them was sporting a flic-knife hidden in an intimate part of his anatomy. Nobody wanted these criminals back in the Principality and they were given hefty fines of a thousand euros each. 

A 5 Million Inheritance All for the Carer of an Aristocrat. Foul Play?

A Slavic Italian Aristocrat in her eighties leaves her entire fortune of 5 million euros to her carer, a lady in her fifties. The aristocrat’s bank raises the alarm. Cash had been withdrawn to buy diamonds and rings – was there any foul play? The Court questions the carer and looks at the evidence. There is a responsibility to watch over the weak, the elderly and vulnerable. But doctors give evidence that the elderly Aristocratic had been of sound mind. There are no strange deposits in the carer’s bank account. The cash purchases of expensive jewellery were typical of the way the aristocrat had always handled her affairs. The carer answered the judge forthrightly without flinching and without a hint of deception. She occasionally received gifts from her employer but there were no suspicious items that could not be accounted for. She had not even known she was going to inherit. There were no surviving family of the octogenarian aristocrat and no-one was contesting the will. The Judge drew the conclusion that after approximately 30 years of faithful service by her carer, the aristocratic old lady had made her “will” known without duress. There was no evidence of foul play or misappropriation of her valuables. The carer is therefore free to enjoy her inheritance of 5 million euros. 

Money missing from a Cash Drawer. A desperate employee pays towards her Mother’s operation 

A Service Agent carrying out routine maintenance in a Monegasque Company wanted to help her mother who was in difficulty. She could not afford to pay for a critical operation. Knowing where the cash drawer was and that the key to it was hidden in a paper clip container, she helped herself to 1000 euros to help pay for her mother’s surgery. What is strange about this case is that she came forward voluntarily to admit to taking the cash and indeed repaid it. It is still an offense to take money without permission even if you return it. But there remained tension around the incident as the Company alleged that over 1500 euros in total had been missing. The Court noted that there was insufficient evidence to support the allegation of the extra missing 500 euros approx of funds. Still a fine of 1000 euros was levied for the offense of taking the 1000 euros without permission – though without prejudice with respect to the employment contract of the Agent.