Balmain collection thieves sentenced to one year in prison in France

On Thursday, two men were sentenced to one year in prison by the Bobigny Correctional Court for the theft of items from the Balmain collection due to be shown at last September’s Paris Fashion Week, a month after a first round of convictions were handed out for the robbery.

One of the men has been incarcerated, the second will serve his sentence by wearing an electronic tag, and a third defendant has been released. A month earlier, in a first trial on the same case, two men had been sentenced to 12- and 18-months’ imprisonment respectively, and a third had been released. The prosecutor’s office, which had asked for terms of six and five years, appealed against the ruling.

In the second trial on March 13, Zouheir B., who was sentenced on Thursday to three years in prison, two of which on a suspended sentence, and was jailed, completely cleared his accomplices. He told the court he was having financial troubles, and had given in to temptation under psychological pressure from a man he refused to name. “He told me he needed to know the deliveries” a certain driver was supposed to make, said Zouheir B., the driver being his cousin. “At the time, I didn’t see there was anything wrong,” he added.

His confession had left the prosecutor in some doubt. “The operation was much more organised than this gentleman is suggesting,” she said, hinting that Zouheir B.’s driver cousin was also involved. The latter was released by the court on Thursday.

The prosecutor had demanded five and four years of imprisonment with a custodial sentence for the three defendants, and for each of them to be fined €10,000. The defence attorneys had asked the court to rely on the material evidence and to look beyond “coincidences.”

The robbery took place on September 16, 2023. A DHL subcontractor’s van was rammed by a car as it was driving towards Paris after leaving the Roissy-en-France logistics hub.

Masked men threatened the driver, and stole the van and the 146 parcels of luxury goods it carried, including items from the Balmain collection that were due to be shown a few days later at Paris Fashion Week.

The material and non-material damage for Balmain was estimated at approximately €645,000.