“I am satisfied because they have convicted her. Now I just hope to reach the end of the refund.” With these words, Egidio, a retiree from Montauban (France) who will turn 98 in the coming days, celebrated the sentence that recognizes that he was the victim of an abuse of weakness and a scam of 56,154.38 euros by Danièle Amouroux, city councilor. The judicial court of Montauban (Tarn-et-Garonne) handed down the ruling on Tuesday, October 14, 2025, after a hearing of more than four hours.
The story began in November 2018, when Amouroux was appointed as the legal guardian of Egidio’s wife, in charge of helping the couple in their administrative efforts. “She started two months before my wife died,” explains the old man, still surprised by the betrayal. Once his wife died, the councilor expanded her role and also assumed Egidio’s representation, which gave her direct access to his bank accounts as well as his personal checks.
You may be interested
Antonio López, 71 years old, retired: “I earn about 2,500 euros net per month, but I think that in a few years there will be no money for pensions if some things don’t change”
A retiree must return 9,465.15 euros to Social Security later for having collected the pension while he was registered as self-employed: justice supports it
Over the next few years, that trust he built turned into manipulation. Thus, between 2018 and February 2023, the councilor cashed 41 checks, for a total of 56,154.38 euros, according to the president of the court, Emmanuelle Yvert. “Twenty-three of those checks are signed by his own hand,” the magistrate explained when reading the facts.
Two acknowledgments of debt that he never fulfilled
After being discovered, Amouroux signed two acknowledgments of debt, one for 10,000 euros and another for 6,000 euros, for which she admitted having received money from the retiree, for which she agreed to return it. Despite this, he only returned 2,000 euros, and he did so “two weeks before the trial,” explains the victim’s lawyer Élodie Cipière.
During her intervention, the lawyer insisted that “my client built his savings by working all his life. He never thought that they would serve to enrich another person.” He added that the councilor “abused her position of trust as a caregiver to take financial advantage of a vulnerable marriage.”
“The only thing he cares about is his reputation.”
Egidio, who attended the hearing accompanied by his grandson, Matthieu, was relieved to learn of the sentence. “She was strong, she started before my wife died, and then she took money from me,” he said calmly. His grandson, more direct, did not hide his indignation: “It is positive that there is a period of probationary suspension, but its absence demonstrates the abuse until the end. The only thing that matters to him is his reputation. But it is too late: justice has spoken.”
Night had already fallen when grandfather and grandson left the Montauban courthouse, accompanied by their lawyer. Exhausted but smiling, they were preparing to share a quiet dinner after a legal battle that lasted years. “Now, the important thing is that you pay back the money,” Egidio commented, cane in hand, before walking away from the building.