The Montauban Criminal Court sentenced a municipal councillor to a six-month suspended prison sentence on Tuesday for abuse of weakness, after she extorted 56,000 euros from a 98-year-old man.

The 76-year-old councilwoman cashed 41 checks between 2018 and 2023 for amounts ranging from €500 to €10,000, systematically paid into her bank account. Half of the checks were written directly by the city councilor.

"She was convicted, that's what I wanted," the 98-year-old victim told AFP after the trial, before adding: "I sweated to earn that money, I would have preferred to give it to my grandson."

Danielle Amouroux is a municipal councilor for the LR/UDR majority in Montauban, district assistant and notably delegate to the council for the rights and duties of families.

His victim is the father of a former municipal councillor in Montauban responsible for disability who sat with the defendant in the municipal majority.

The municipal councillor, elected on the list of Brigitte Barèges, a figure of the local right and mayor of Montauban for nearly 23 years, was also ordered to reimburse the victim and pay her 1,500 euros in moral damages.

Absent from her trial, citing medical reasons, she nevertheless admitted the facts and apologized to the victim through her lawyer, after having long denied her guilt during her police custody and during the investigation.

"(My client) trusted her completely and he would have liked to have seen her present and for her to answer the questions that will remain unanswered," the nonagenarian's lawyer, Elodie Cipière, told AFP.

For her, the trial served to ensure that "the abuse of which he was a victim was recognized," so that her client could finally "turn the page."

In 2023, a bank advisor alerted the Montauban prosecutor's office when the municipal councilor was "very insistent" about being designated as the recipient of her life insurance policy.

The investigation also revealed an attempt by a notary to place the victim under guardianship.