Nice-Matin reported that Monaco's correctional court jailed Nicolas S. on Friday 30 October 2026. The sentence is eight months' immediate imprisonment, a five-year ban on working as a taxi driver, cancellation of his driving licence, a one-year ban on obtaining a new licence, and confiscation of the items seized. He had driven a taxi in the Principality for about ten years. Taxi driver jailed after drugs at the wheel
Found near Cap-d'Ail
At about 5.45am on 28 October, officers of the Direction de la Sûreté Publique found the 44-year-old Monegasque slumped over the steering wheel of his car near the Wurtemberg roundabout, by the border with Cap-d'Ail. The engine was still running. Emergency services attended. He tested positive for drugs. His condition ruled out police custody then, and he was questioned several hours later.
He told investigators that he had started his shift at about 9pm the evening before and had taken customers to Nice. After an argument with his wife on the phone, he obtained cocaine there, returned to Monaco, snorted it, and took more than the prescribed doses of anti-anxiety medicine and codeine Dafalgan. Analysis also showed cannabis.
The car and the home
Searches of the vehicle and his home found vape pens described as CBD with a THC level of 88%, 4.75 grammes of cocaine, bags of medicines, and weapons classed as category C. Those were a pepper-spray canister, a butterfly knife, and a realistic-looking pistol that discharged an irritant liquid.
The duty prosecutor referred him on 29 October for an immediate appearance on 30 October. The hearing came barely a day after a three-year probation period ended.
What the court heard
In France he was convicted of excessive speeding and of driving under the influence of drugs in 2021 and 2022. In October 2023 a Monaco court gave him a two-month suspended prison sentence for drink-driving and required treatment. He has also been convicted twice of failing to pay social security contributions linked to his business.
Before presiding judge Florestan Bellinzona he admitted the offences and apologised more than once. The court heard that he had dealt with alcoholism and had turned to drugs and medication, that spending on the drugs was estimated at nearly €1,000 a month, about a quarter of his salary, and that he put the use down to a very low state of mind fed by family and financial problems.
Deputy Prosecutor General Christine Mutiloa called him a "road-traffic offender" who, because of his job, "should have been beyond reproach". "He had the benefit of supervision and of the court's trust. Today there is no choice but an immediate prison sentence." She asked for eight months' immediate imprisonment, with the arrest warrant kept in force, cancellation of the driving licence, a one-year ban on a new licence, confiscation of the seized items, and for the bench to consider barring him from taxi work.
Maeva Zampori, defending, spoke of a man in depression, the only person providing for his family, remorseful and ready for detoxification, and ready to work days rather than nights. She asked for a suspended sentence with probation, "to take his life back in hand and allow him to go on living".
The judges followed the prosecution requests and added a five-year ban on taxi work.
The penalty for a driver on duty
The National Council adopted a road-safety law on 6 November 2025, and Prince Albert II sanctioned it on 14 November 2025. Article 391-15-2 of the Penal Code punishes a driver who, during a period of duty, commits one of the drink or drug offences in articles 391-13 to 391-15-1, including refusal of a drug test. The penalty is imprisonment of six months to three years and the fine at figure 3 of article 26, or either penalty alone. It applies to drivers using a category C, CE, D or DE licence in their work, and to holders of a public authorisation to carry passengers. The account of the hearing is that the court applied that provision. Road safety law of 14 November 2025