Jail for ‘Project X’ party pair
Two 21-year-olds who organised a party at an empty villa, which was vandalised, were given prison sentences
TWO men aged 21 have been jailed for organising a party at an unoccupied villa, inspired by the film Project X.
During the party in the Var – which may have attracted as many as 1,000 from as far away as Marseille, Lyon and Paris – windows were broken, bathroom installations and plumbing ripped off, furniture thrown in the pool... with total damage estimated by insurers at around €80,000.
In the recent American film Project X three friends try to become popular by organising a party at one of their parents’ homes, which gets out of control after it is publicised on social media.
The young men said they wanted to “create a buzz and get known”. They put out an invitation on Facebook saying: “There’s no limits. Come with alcohol. We can have up to 1,200.”
They said there would be “massive sound” “strippers” and “crazy DJs”.
Neighbours alerted police because of the noise.
The Dutch villa owner said: “It was terrifying, incredible; they had broken everything.”
In court in Draguignan the men responsible, Allan Brooks and Alexandre Fleury, said they just wanted to “organise a test party” because they wanted to “go into event management”.
They claimed the damage was not done by their guests but by “vandals who came to smash the place up” at the end of the night.
However public prosecutor Pierre Arpaia said they knew the evening would degenerate. “The aim was to get out of their heads, with alcohol and other substances, and at the end of the night everything should be destroyed.”
The young men were given a year’s prison sentence with six months suspended. A man employed as a caretaker for the villa, who rented it to them unknown to the owners, received the same punishment. The three were also ordered to pay €20,000 to the villa owners.
Photo: Screenshot from France 3
