(JTA) — A French court fined a Jewish publisher from the Paris region for discriminating against Arab job seekers.

The publisher, identified by Le Parisien Daily on Friday as Jean-Luc B., was on Thursday fined the equivalent of $6,600 by a correctional tribunal in Bobigny for refusing to hire applicants of North African descent for a vacancy he had advertised, in order to “avoid tensions.”

According to Le Parisien, Jean-Luc B., an Orthodox Jew and father of four, told Arab applicants he could not hire them “as a precaution” because they could have a relative who “doesn’t like Jews.”

At the trial, he reportedly admitted to the discriminatory practice and told the judge that he could not leave the keys to his business with an Arab, because it would carry too much of a risk.