A couple and a company have been convicted of fraud over EU subsidies obtained for a fake cattle farm in France.
It follows an investigation and prosecution by the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) in Paris.
The couple, from Corsica, had falsely declared that they were running a cattle farm in order to obtain EU agricultural subsidies, amounting to €263,000, from France's public agricultural payments agency.
One defendant was also convicted of forgery and use of forged documents after submitting false invoices to the Corsican Office for Agricultural and Rural Development.
Imprisonment
A sentence of one year's imprisonment, suspended for three years, was handed down to one defendant by the Paris criminal court while the other received a sentence of six months' imprisonment, also suspended.
The couple was ordered to reimburse the French agricultural payments agency for the financial damage caused.
They were also banned from carrying out farming activities for three years and from standing for election for two years.
The company was fined €10,000, half of which was suspended.
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