51-year-old S. was already dismissed by the court in Maastricht in March 2021 in all current debt restructuring schemes in which she was administrator. She had 73 clients at the time.
Administrators are appointed by the court and are accountable to it. The dismissal followed complaints about the work of the Geleense. She was regularly late in submitting progress reports and did not respond to questions from the court. It also turned out to be difficult or unreachable for clients.
The first complaints date from the end of 2019. In April 2020, S. promised to get better in conversation with the examining magistrate. She traced her negligence to personal circumstances. After that conversation, she was also assigned new clients, but the promised improvement did not materialize.
Assessment
After her resignation in March last year, all of S.’s clients were assigned new administrators. They have recently inventoried her ‘legacy’ – all financial transactions. This showed that the Geleen woman received a total of more than 160,000 euros more in salary from estate accounts than she was entitled to. In most cases this involved several hundred to thousands of euros, in one debt rescheduling scheme it was twenty thousand euros. The complaint followed.
The Public Prosecution Service (OM) confirms receipt of the report, but has not yet launched a criminal investigation. “We are currently assessing whether we need additional information from the court,” said a spokesperson for the Public Prosecution Service. A decision to prosecute S. has not yet been taken. It is also too early to say anything about a possible confiscation claim.
“How can you sink so low?”
One of the victims in this case is Marlie Cals from Beek. She claims that due to S.’s default, she is now in debt restructuring for five instead of three years. According to Cals, the administrator has ‘skimmed off’ 2250 euros too much salary in her case. “How can you sink so low, steal from the poorest?”
In a response, the ex-administrator admits that she had failed: “I was not feeling well in recent years; reports were submitted late, but I never wanted to deliberately disadvantage people.”