The 58-year-old board member who plundered the cash of the activities foundation of senior citizens’ complex Paasweide in Appingedam has been sentenced to 80 hours of community service.
The man from Appingedam violated the cash out of financial distress, he told the police judge on Monday. Partly due to a gambling addiction, he had run into financial problems and expressed regret for the theft.
It is unclear exactly how much money he stole. Since he took over the management of the Friends of Paasweide Foundation at the beginning of 2018, he has withdrawn 30,000 euros with the foundation’s card. It is impossible to find out how much he pushed back because the accounting is gone. The foundation regularly made cash payments.
The man estimates that he withheld about 10,000 euros for himself. The police judge agreed with that and therefore imposed a confiscation order for that amount on him. That money goes to the state. The foundation was closed by the Damster in April 2019.
Restlessness and sadness
The sudden end of activities such as bingo and Klaverjas evenings and the closure of the internal shop with things like biscuits and tea caused great unrest and sadness among the residents of Paasweide and volunteers of the foundation at the time.
Residents of the care home paid for all activities, which enabled the foundation to save money. A number of residents immediately filed a report with the police in April 2019, which started the case. The settlement took a long time. The police interrogated the suspect for the last time in September 2020. The file was not sent to the Public Prosecution Service until a year later.
The police judge weighed the slow handling in the sentencing. The suspect has now got his life back on track, he said. The public prosecutor demanded 120 hours of community service, but the judge made it 80 hours. With the stick behind the door a suspended prison sentence of 2 months with a probationary period of one year.