The article discusses methods used by the communist security service against people connected with the French Consulate at Szczecin in the 1950s. Criminal proceedings were implemented, repressions affecting a large number of people, most of whom had nothing at all to do with the case. The basic evidence, which was deemed to attest to their espionage activity, was that they pleaded guilty - an admittance coerced by tortures. In reality, the Robineau espionage network included merely several persons and its activity was in fact 'harmless', as it consisted in collecting information of no significance to Poland's defense or the citizens' security.