He Steals from Five Cars, Moroccan Man Banned from France for Ten Years

The Meaux criminal court delivered its judgment on Wednesday, August 26. The young man was found guilty of five thefts involving damage committed in vehicles parked in an underground car park in Chelles, reports Le Parisien.

The five thefts were committed at around 4:40 a.m. At the hearing, the Moroccan man denied the accusations, but his explanations failed to convince the judges. He was ultimately found guilty of all the offenses. His case was also aggravated by repeat offending.

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The judges handed down one year of imprisonment and ordered his immediate detention. But the prosecution had requested a second sanction with much longer-lasting effects: ten years’ ban from French territory. The court fully followed these submissions.

Ten years outside France after prison

This judicial ban from French territory must not be confused with an OQTF issued by a prefecture. In this case, it is a sentence decided directly by the criminal judge.

The French Penal Code allows courts to impose a ban from French territory of up to ten years on certain convicted foreign nationals. When it accompanies a prison sentence, its enforcement is suspended during incarceration.

In other words, the Moroccan man will first have to serve his prison sentence. The ban will then take full effect. The ten-year period begins to run from the moment his departure from France is officially recorded.

This sentence may therefore have consequences lasting far longer than the one-year prison term imposed for the thefts. Another Moroccan man subject to a ten-year ban from French territory found himself in a particularly complex situation after his removal could not be carried out.

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In another case heard in France, a Moroccan driver convicted of drug trafficking had also received a ten-year ban from French territory. In Chelles, the court this time imposed the maximum temporary duration provided for by law for five thefts from vehicles committed by a repeat offender.