A fruit and vegetable trader from Assen may continue to sell his goods at the Asser market for the time being. The municipality of Assen wants to revoke his place of employment due to a previous conviction, but the judge has ordered him to wait until the market trader’s objection has been settled.
Due to previous convictions of the fruit trader, the municipality wants to immediately withdraw his position at the Wednesday and Saturday market in Assen, despite the objection procedure initiated by the trader. That is why both parties met before the administrative judge in Groningen on Thursday. But he has now decided that the municipality acted too hastily.
During the hearing, a spokeswoman for the municipality said that the procedure for withdrawing the location will take at least ten weeks. To avoid bankruptcy, the trader wants to continue selling his fruit and vegetables in the meantime, he told the judge. The trader was sentenced to six months in prison for tax fraud in August. Not only did he have his administration in order, but he also had employees working undeclared in his stall.
The municipality believes that the latter creates unfair competition on the market. To keep the business climate on the market healthy, the municipality decided at the beginning of October to immediately withdraw the fruit trader’s positions in Assen. As a result, the market vendor misses seventy percent of his income. He would not survive that financially, the man from Assen previously told the judge. The judge therefore finds immediate withdrawal to be too harsh a remedy.
The municipality has not substantiated whether there is still criminal conduct by the market vendor. Moreover, it is also possible that the fruit seller will be right in the objection procedure. The bankruptcy would then be unjustified and irreversible. The market trader’s request to continue working at the markets in Assen, as long as his objection is being processed, has therefore been granted.