Paragraph 3: Surety bonds

The deposit provided for in 11° of article 138 (paragraph 2) shall be paid to the revenue agent set up at the court registry of the competent court, to whom the head of this department shall send a copy of the order issued by the investigating judge.

Receipts recording the payment or partial payments of the bond are detached from a counterfoil notebook kept by the revenue manager.

The amount provided for in the last paragraph of Article 142 is set at €1,000. When the security is provided by cheque, it must be certified and made out to the competent court’s revenue officer.

Notice shall be given to the investigating judge by the court clerk of any failures or delays in the payment of the bond. Notice of the payment itself shall be given without delay to the examining magistrate by the court clerk, where release with judicial supervision is subject to this payment under the conditions provided for by articles 147 and 148.

Cash or cash equivalents given to the revenue officer for a bond must be paid to the Caisse des dépôts et consignations within two days. The court clerk is responsible for keeping this cash or cash equivalents before they are paid to the Caisse des dépôts et consignations.

When the examining magistrate orders that the part of the bond allocated to guarantee the rights of the victim or the creditor of a maintenance debt be paid to them in advance, they shall be notified of this. The Caisse des dépôts et consignations, at the behest of the revenue administrator, shall credit the latter’s account with the corresponding sum, for the purpose of payment to the beneficiaries.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office, of its own motion or at the request of the civil parties, shall produce to the departments of the Directorate General of Public Finances, which are responsible for the recovery of the portion of the bond forfeited to the State in the case provided for in Article 142-2 (paragraph 2), a certificate from the court registry drawn up in duplicate stating the liability incurred by the…

If the person prosecuted is finally sentenced to pay damages, the public prosecutor shall inform the civil party of the existence of the bond and indicate the formalities to be completed to obtain payment by the Caisse des dépôts et consignations of the sums owed to it, increased, where applicable, by accrued interest.

In the cases provided for in the first paragraph of Article 142-2 and in the first paragraph of Article 142-3, the sums returned to the person prosecuted are increased, where applicable, by accrued interest.