For the first time, the police have succeeded in tackling fraudsters on suspicion of the large-scale sale of forged experience certificates in healthcare, also known as EVC certificates. The Public Prosecution Service reported this on Wednesday News hour. These are three suspects who, estimated between 800 and 1,200 certificates, that they sold for thousands of euros each to people without experience in healthcare. In this way they could work unauthorized and unqualified with patients and clients.
The suspects are two men aged 27 and 35 from Amersfoort and a 32-year-old woman from The Hague. The trio is suspected of participating in a criminal organization, scams and forgery. The police speak of a ‘extensive issue’ and do not exclude more arrests. In the houses of the suspects, who came into the picture through an anonymous tip, and things have been seized in a business premises.
More than a third of the thousand care diplomas in MBO that have been achieved through an accelerated route in recent years are most likely fraudulent
EVC certificates are intended for people who have already gained relevant work experience in healthcare, but do not yet have the official diplomas. Such a certificate can be converted by the MBO education into a shortening of the process to a diploma.
How widespread is this problem?
Care supervisors notice in A study published last year That diploma and certificate fraud occurs regularly. For example, in April of this year, fifty to sixty youth care staff were deleted from the register of the Jeugdzorg Quality Register (SKJ) Foundation because they were not in order. A recent sample of the professional register for youth professionals showed that more than 50 of the 274 employees had invalid EVC certificates.
In January of this year, the Healthcare and Youth Inspectorate (IGJ) reported that more than a third of the thousand care diplomas in MBO that have been obtained through an accelerated process in recent years are most likely fraudulent. It would be hundreds of care workers who are working without thorough training. In 2024, the IGJ suspected that hundreds of forged diplomas are in circulation for which between 1,000 and 6,000 euros each are paid.
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Why does this problem arise in healthcare?
The personnel side of the healthcare sector is a complex network of healthcare providers, trainers, companies that issue certificates and hundreds of mediation agencies. According to the inspection, that entire network maintains fraudulent practices. The problem plays particularly in district nursing, nursing homes, youth care, care for the disabled and mental health care.
In some cases, ZPP people buy forged certificates themselves and then report to a mediation agency with these fraudulent papers. But often enough, it is the brokerage agencies that deliver false papers to the care provider, while the self -employed person assumes that everything is neatly arranged.
As soon as an EVC certificate has been converted into an MBO diploma or youth care registration, employers can no longer distinguish the fraudulent certificate from a real diploma. MBOs are therefore critical of the certificates. Multiple healthcare providers who wanted to check the diplomas of their temporary workers were diverted to a false variant of the website of the Education Executive Agency (DUO), where all diplomas are registered. But there are also signs from healthcare providers who consciously accept falsified diplomas.
Anyone who receives care in the Netherlands must be able to trust that this care is safe
Partly due to the large staff shortages in healthcare, EVC certificates offer a solution to let people already work before they officially have their diploma in their pocket. They can enter accelerated in this way. But it also lowers the threshold to admit people with falsified papers.
What are the dangers?
Healthcare providers who occur as qualified, but that are not, harm the confidence of all Dutch people in the care system, warns the IGJ in a recent report on the fraudulent certificates. “Anyone who receives care in the Netherlands must be able to trust that this care is safe,” said the report.
The Inspectorate received complaints about self -employed people in healthcare who do not provide adequate guidance to their clients, but especially act as a ‘babysitter’. They are not competent to be able to deal with misunderstood behavior or complex problems. According to the inspection, this has led to ‘serious calamities’ several times.
But there are also great concerns about the “increasing interdependence” between care and organized crime and fraud networks. The IGJ received signals about care providers with fraudulent papers that encourage vulnerable clients to criminal offenses. They have the personal data of these clients, information that is interesting for criminal organizations according to the inspection. Multiple fellow caregivers only dared to report these practices anonymously because they felt seriously intimidated or even threatened.
There are also reports and reports of the OM on care mediation agencies that link self -employed people directly to criminal organizations
There are also reports and reports of the OM on care mediation agencies that link self -employed people directly to criminal organizations. There would be “healing, cyber crime, trade in hardware and soft drugs, violent and property crimes, scams, street robbery and robberies,” said the inspection.
The IGJ also says he has reports of care providers who were working through forged EVC certificates and VOGs, while they had a criminal record for “participation in a criminal organization with the intention of committing terrorist crimes and crimes against the safety of the state”.
Why is it so difficult to pick up fraudsters?
Only “a few times a year” are diploma fraudsters, said a spokesperson for the OM earlier in NRC. To detect such fraudsters, large quantities of transactions must be investigated and the laws and regulations that are about this is complex, according to the OM.
Falling care diplomas is lucrative. It is estimated that criminals in the Netherlands earn 10 billion euros in care money annually due to the falsification of diplomas and submitting false declarations.
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