A woman from Goirle has been given 240 hours of community service by the judge for embezzling thousands of euros at the shelter where she worked. The woman was treasurer there and put more than 130,000 euros in her own pocket in eight years. In addition to community service, she must repay that amount.
She was told that on Friday afternoon in the court in Breda. The woman used the money that parents transferred to the foundation for luxury items such as lingerie, plane tickets, fines, internet subscriptions, vacations and driving lessons.
She ran into the lamp in 2019 when the local primary school Den Bongerd wanted to map out her administrative and financial situation. She eventually confessed by email that she had withdrawn money from the foundation’s bank account for her own use.
Afraid of debt
During the hearing it turned out that she had done so because she was already in debt earlier in her life and did not want to go through that again. Her husband became unemployed at that time and a divorce followed a short time later.
The woman promised to repay the amounts, but during the hearing it turned out that she had not set aside any money for this in any way. The judge blames the woman for not once trying to stop or seek help for her financial problems. Even when there was a suspicion that she was embezzling money, she still transferred more than 12,000 euros to her own account.
Higher suspended prison sentence
The public prosecutor demanded community service of 240 hours and compensation of 131,000 euros. The judge agrees. In addition, the court imposed a suspended prison sentence of six months. That is a higher suspended sentence than the Public Prosecution Service demanded. The judge finds that the woman needs a stick behind the door for a long time to motivate her not to go wrong again. Especially now that her financial future does not look very bright.
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