A Turkish national with an existing order to leave France has been convicted of a crime for the 32nd time after stealing a chequebook and using it to obtain cash.
The latest conviction for 51-year-old Sehin Cetinoglu related to crimes he committed in 2018 when, in financial difficulty, he stole a chequebook to obtain money illegally when he was unable to find a job, leading to complaints from at least nine different victims.
On January 31st police arrested the 51-year-old, who has been living in France for 41 years, and he appeared before a French judge in Caen on March 9th, trying to convince the magistrate that he had only committed the financial crimes to help his own family, La Manche Libre reports.
“I did this only to feed my family,” Cetinoglu, who has three children, told the judge and also stated, “When I was issued an obligation to leave the territory, it really affected me. I want to continue to see my children.”
The judge, however, noted that along with having an existing deportation order, known as an OQTF in France, the 51-year-old had 31 prior criminal convictions and sentenced the Turkish national to six months in a French prison.
The issue of deportations and deportation orders of criminals in France has been a major topic of discussion for several months in the wake of the murder of a 12-year-old girl named Lola in Paris, allegedly by an Algerian woman with a deportation order.
The main suspect in the case, a 24-year-old Algerian woman named Dhabia B., had been ordered to leave French territory and should have been out of the country weeks prior to the alleged murder of the girl but the deportation order had not been enforced.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin has vowed to make sweeping changes to deportation and immigration policies, including putting forth proposals to put those with deportation orders on criminal wanted lists.
Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com.
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