More than 800 Irish criminals are earning millions of euro a year in France – by scamming their way around the country, cops have warned.
A report by a special national police unit has revealed that some 816 travelling tarmac scammers were active in France in 2022 – and the report says the vast bulk of them are Irish.
And sources have told The Mirror that the trade nets the gangsters at least €10 million a year.
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“It’s a goldmine for them,” one source said.
“They are not only committing crimes in France, large areas of Europe are also in their sights, including Italy, Belgium, Germany and Spain.”
The source gave an insight into the gags’ operations – which concentrate on laying poor quality tarmac and fleeing with payment before their shoddy work falls apart – after French police issued an unprecedented warning about their activities,
The special French intelligence unit called SIRASCO - which advised police teams all over the country on how to combat organised crime – has written a special memo on the Irish scammers, which was obtained in recent days by new channel Europe 1.
It says that there are now some 816 mostly Irish roaming scammers in France – compared to 616 in 2021, or an increase of almost one third.
The report says COVID dealt a blow to the scammers’ operations, but now that restrictions have been lifted they are back with a vengeance.
“They act as a family, with clan leaders in a very pyramidal organization,” the report adds.
And the SIRASCO report says French cops have recorded more than 8,000 crimes reported to them having been committed by the mostly Irish scammers in the last decade.
Officers said the worst hit area was greater Paris, which had 3,260 incidents between 2012 and 2022.
There were some 2155 in the north; 1900 in the south and 1336 in the west – which is a total of 8651 separate crimes.
It’s understood dozens of different gangs are operating all over France and Europe - and are duping their victims out of small fortunes wherever they go.
Sources have revealed that travelling tarmac gangs have fleeced victims in France, Italy, Belgium, Portugal, Spain - and most other mainland European countries.
The marauding gang offers to carry out tarmac work on roads and private properties – but deliver shoddy work.
The gangs always use the same tactic: they go door to door offering cheap tarmac work.
The leader tells homeowners that his team has just carried out work for the local council and has a large amount of asphalt left over.
He then offers to lay asphalt at a low price - which many people feel is too good a deal to refuse.
The gang then tarmacs over the requested area - but it is of such poor quality that it washes away when it rains.
Victims have also complained that the gang’s work is so poor that they even tarmac over manholes - and that people can’t walk on the pavement because it is so uneven.
But by the time the punters realise they have been had the gang has escaped with thousands of euro.
The SIRASCO report said one victim in the western town of Anjou paid a gang €2,600 to tarmac his driveway – only for him to realise after they had gone that they had just laid gravel.
And the report also said the gangs were branching out into other crimes – including drug trafficking, stealing rare rhino horns, scamming tourists by pretending to need money for petrol and also stealing catalytic converters from cars.
It also warned that many of the Irish criminals had made France their home
“The police now suspect certain clans of having established themselves permanently in France and serving as reception bases for teams that move between Ireland and all of Western Europe,” the report said.
In April 2021, French cops seized a lorry one Irish tarmac gang was using to scam people Sainte Gemme en Sancerrois, around 150kms south of Paris.
French cops released this photograph of the seized lorry and warned local people in the area not to fall victim to the scammers.
They said: “Yesterday in Sainte Gemme en Sancerrois, our soldiers seized this lorry used in spreading tarmac.
“If anyone offers you the end of a tank to do your own driveway, call 112!”
And in late 2020, we reported that cops in central Italy arrested three Irishmen – on suspicion of carrying out the same scam.
Investigators said the trio had roamed around half the country making a fortune targeting businesses and homeowners in the scam – that allegedly earned them tens of thousands of euro.
The three, aged 57, 31 and 19, were arrested in the Perugia area of central Italy earlier in December 2020 after one person became suspicious and contacted cops.
Officers rushed to the scene and found the three Irishmen in the car park of a nearby pub.
They found a fake driver’s licence on one of the men, as well as proof of work all over the country.
And in April 2021, the Criminal Assets Bureau seized a mansion in Co Kerry that belonged to an Irishman the High Court heard was involved in home improvement scams all over Ireland, retain and Europe.
The home of Patrick Coffey (38) was seized in Killarney.
Mr Coffey had his detached home seized as part of Operation Tarmac – the long-running CAB probe into the gang.
The High Court documents in a case that was finalised in 2021, alleged that Mr Coffey was a member of a gang that is involved in bogus home improvement work all over Europe.
CAB claimed in the High Court that the gang targets vulnerable people in Ireland, Britain and in the continent and the work is often found to be of a poor standard.
Gardai began their investigation into the gang in 2016, and then passed it on to the Criminal Assets Bureau, who examined suspects’ finances.
That probe, codenamed Tarmac, culminated in the April 2021 seizure operation.
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