The grandmother who was too fond of bingo found Thursday in Arras – TF1

The grandmother who was too fond of bingo found Thursday in Arras – TF1

“I have the impression that I am accused of having taken in but, you know, what I regret the most is not having read, at least I would be sentenced to something. ” Yvette Bert, 76, does not understand what justice reproach him for his small studio to a retirement in Saint-Omer (Pas-de-Calais) people on the eve of his trial Arras . The septuagenarian appear directly quote for organizing prohibited between January 2009 and May 2013 lottery advertising a prohibited lottery and breach of trust and not to have paid 88,000 euros in taxes owed on 460,753 euros revenue lotto.

Traditional bingo, organized with a social purpose and put less than twenty euros “a small circle” are not subject to tax, which was not the case for those of Yvette Bert, “with large-scale” and widely publicized, according to customs. “Some bingo, I was doing every week, it was my pleasure,” readily admits the old lady. “But I’ve always given everything, I did not take anything,” she said, providing live with 644 euros monthly pension. Divorced since 1980, the mother of seven children she never sees, Yvette Bert, who has “always volunteered to bottom,” he with his little son Matthew, created in 2006 “Together for Hope,” a association for which they were raising money then paid. “We had so many requests from people who had nothing,” recalls the old lady. So to have money to give, she picks up on the streets of cardboard packaging it sells, metal cans too. And she began organizing bingo, “four or five times a year at the beginning.”

Every Sunday, people crowded the lotus of “granny”

The day his little son s’ goes without explanation, she launched fully into the lotto. “They saved me from my little son, I had to age from 15 years to 25 years,” said the old lady crying. “She had no family and has found a new bingo through,” says AFP’s counsel, Ms. Claire Lamoril-Houtard. Every Sunday in the hall of Saint-Omer leased by the association, people crowded the lotus of “granny”. “Everybody called me my little son, and I did kiss everyone,” said Yvette Bert. “For five euros, we spent a great afternoon,” recalls Maria Theresa Cordier, 77, a friend of the seventies. “They say I was doing a trade, it’s wrong, it was my friends,” says the latter.

The money raised funded primarily prizes awarded to participants and the running costs of the association -the room was rented 2,000 euros per months-. “When there remained 5,000 euros, I changed back to an association, I have evidence,” said Yvette Bert, newspaper articles and supporting photos. His world fell apart in May 2013, when the police arrested her. The old lady, suffering from leg ulcers, depression – she tried to commit suicide by swallowing sleeping pills Christmas-, believes to have been terminated by a jealous rival the success of its bingo. “I have the impression that we want to make me an example for others to make it stop, and that’s on me it fell,” laments the septuagenarian. Her to three years in prison and 90,000 euros fine. “I do not mind going to jail is to save my honor I will,” she said. “If I go to jail, well I will organize lotto for the prisoners.”