A 51-year-old man from Coevorden has put almost 60,000 euros into his own pocket as treasurer of a neighborhood and playground association in Coevorden. The court found embezzlement proven. The judge sentenced the man to 160 hours community service and a suspended prison sentence of two months.
“I should never have become treasurer,” the man told the judge on Friday. He had been involved with the association for many years. In January 2017, he started transferring money to his own account as treasurer. At the end of 2020, other board members realized that the accounting was not quite correct and started their own investigation.
They carefully sifted through the bank accounts and added up the amounts they could not identify. They confronted the treasurer with this. He confessed that he had appropriated a few amounts. He had a gambling problem and got into financial trouble because of it. The man admitted to the court that he had been taking away amounts of money for some time.
“What do you have to say to that now”, said the public prosecutor. He thought it was sad that public money, intended for children’s entertainment, was spent on gambling. “You betray the trust that an association placed in you,” the prosecutor said. He also noted that the association did not act in a controlling manner and that the treasurer was therefore able to do his thing for a long time.
The Coevordenaar regretted what he had done. He is very shocked by cards with death threats that plopped on his mat. “That does not immediately make you a victim. But that is indecent and even punishable,” said the judge. The sentence he imposed is equal to the demand of the prosecutor. The former treasurer must be guided, if necessary by addiction care. The man must pay back the stolen amount.