The first customers have just settled in, who for lunch, who for sunbathing on a mattress. In the kitchen, it’s effervescence. And now a dozen people in street clothes arrive without warning in this beach restaurant in Nice. “We know it’s a shot, but we need employees for our controls to be effective”, justifies Thierry Borgia, principal inspector within the Departmental Directorate of Public Finances. At the head of the squad, the assistant prosecutor Jean-Philippe Navarre. The magistrate’s requisitions allow the various services to open all the doors.
The first check is carried out on the cash register. No more software that made it possible to hide double accounting in one click. The restaurant must provide a certificate of conformity for the software at the risk of being fined up to 7,500 euros! At the same time, a labor inspector and another from the URSSAF went directly to the kitchens. The hygiene services could not, that day, accompany the movement, taken by another mission, but they are usually associated.
The manager of this private beach puts on a good face, but even if some stress is palpable. We must continue to welcome customers while answering questions from controllers. The regulations are sometimes so finicky… “A non-alcoholic exhibition bottle is missing. Ten are needed, not nine”, remarks a police officer from the administrative brigade. No PV for this detail quickly rectified by a server. Ditto for the absence of a ban on smoking in the toilets.
The various services in action belong to Codaf, the acronym for Operational Anti-Fraud Committee. The pandemic has not facilitated these inter-service punch actions. Prosecutor Xavier Bonhomme decided to relaunch them with, each time, a sector in the crosshairs. “This time it’s the beach restaurants but it could have been the barbers, the building, the shisha bars….”, specifies Jean-Philippe Navarre, his deputy who, in terms of fraud, knows a lot about it. He went through the national financial prosecutor’s office.
From meat to CCTV
Direction another beach whose concession was recently awarded. Again, a warm welcome. No outbursts of voice. The various State services take over the restaurant with its neat decoration. A worker carries out work in the scullery. An inspector telephones the employer immediately: “You would have to provide me with your employee’s building fund card. You know he must always have it on him.” The police officers of the administrative brigade ask for proof of the origin of the meat and the prefectural authorization for the video protection system.
A policeman fills in a simplified report by ticking boxes: “tobacco register, display of the price of games, smoking ban, IV license…” A report is drawn up for non-compliance with the duration of working time. The establishment is also singled out for its lack of ventilation in the kitchens. He has twenty days to comply.
Throughout the week, the checks are linked. Word of mouth has not caught on with the inspectors: concealed work, non-respect of weekly working hours, expired foodstuffs, faulty self-control of temperatures… The fight against fraud ensures health client. But not only. Some beaches show impressive turnover; between three and four million euros. In these times of crisis, the State especially does not want to leave its share of the cake.