Two men from Stevensbeek have received community service of 25 and 30 hours for fraud with manure. The livestock farmer of one of them must also pay a fine of 9,000 euros. The court in Den Bosch has determined this on Tuesday. The Public Prosecution Service (OM) had demanded heavier sentences.
According to the judge, much more phosphate was removed during manure transport than was stated in the papers and which is permitted by law. In addition, damage has been done to the environment. The case came to light five years ago during an audit by the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA).
Higher demands OM
The Public Prosecution Service previously concluded that these two men and two other suspects manipulated manure samples on a large scale and prepared false documents. For that reason, community service of 80 hours and a fine of 25,000 euros were demanded. The judiciary also found that one of the companies should pay back almost 670,000 euros to the State.
Brabant has a dubious reputation to uphold in the field of manure fraud. Livestock or transport companies regularly run into problems because they are confronted with excess manure due to high production and a shortage of markets. There are not enough ways to process all that manure.
Fraud difficult to prove
The now convicted entrepreneurs in Stevensbeek are not the only culprits; Manure traders Lierop and Wintelre also provide municipalities, the NVWA, the police and the judiciary with a lot of work. Because the fraud is often difficult to prove, it can take a long time before it is punished. And that in turn influences the penalty.
In the most recent case, the court ruled that ‘the reasonable time limit has been violated to an exceptionally large extent’. In other words: because the legal process has lasted so long, the suspects get off with a less severe sentence. Incidentally, it was also taken into account that one of the persons involved has suffered a financial loss as a result of the lawsuit. One of the lawyers who represented the suspects believes that the verdict in his client’s case is ‘satisfactory’.
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