Gilles Bertin (25 March 1961 – 7 November 2019) was a French musician and singer, and a member of the punk band Camera Silens from 1981 to 1986.[1][2][3]

Biography

Born in Paris on 25 March 1961, Bertin moved to Bordeaux with his parents as a teenager. In Bordeaux, he founded the punk band Camera Silens as a bassist and a singer.[4] The band enjoyed significant success in the French punk rock scene.[5] After he became a drug addict and tested HIV positive, he fell into delinquency.[6][7][8]

On 27 April 1988, Bertin participated in a robbery on the Toulouse department of Brink's along with a dozen other robbers, after two years of preparation.[9] The group stole 11,571,316 francs, despite never firing a shot. To this day, most of the loot has never been found. After police launched "Operation Sangria", all participants of the robbery were arrested within two years, except for Bertin.[10] He fled to Spain, and then later, Portugal while running a record shop dedicated to alternative rock. In 1995, Bertin fell ill with AIDS, but survived thanks to tritherapy. In 2000, he returned to Barcelona and worked in a bar owned by his family while living under several identities.[11][12]

On 26 November 2016, Bertin returned to France to face justice.[13][14] His trial began on 6 June 2018, and he faced 20 years imprisonment.[15] However, Bertin was only sentenced to five years with suspension, after the prosecution cited "good conduct."[16][17]

In February 2019, Bertin published an autobiography, titled Trente ans de cavale, ma vie de punk with the publisher Éditions Robert Laffont.[18][19][20]

On 7 November 2019, Gilles Bertin succumbed to AIDS after spending several weeks in a coma.[21][22][23] He was 58.

References