“He played American, they became outcasts“. This is the sad observation made by Me Steinier regarding his client and his companion this Wednesday before the Namur criminal court.
After a bankruptcy, the defendant placed his companion in the management of his new company, when she was not exercising the function, the latter lending her name as a “straw woman” while the construction company was in fact managed by his companion. In terms of forgery, the defendant indicated on estimates and invoices an address that did not correspond to the registered office of the company, the same was true for the name of the latter and its VAT number.
In 2018 and 2019, due to a gambling addiction, the defendant took 503,000 euros from the company’s accounts. In particular, 236,000 euros were played directly with the accounts of the sprl while 180,000 euros were deducted from them in cash. When it went bankrupt, it had a current account of 184,000 euros. “It took me 6 or 7 years ago. I won, sometimes 50,000 euros, sometimes trips. It was a spiral comparable to drugs or alcohol. I was banned from entering casinos, I started a psychological follow-up. The game destroyed me.“Two vehicles are involved in the prevention of misappropriation of assets.
Substitute Biémar explains: “ The financial information processing unit denounced the suspicious movements and transfers between the defendant’s account and those of the company. The defendant lied all along. He claimed to have stopped working following the bankruptcy but started once more by circumventing the rules. He mightn’t start working as a physical person once more given the liabilities left over from bankruptcy, so they made forgery.“The representative of the public prosecutor’s office specifies that the defendant has already been sentenced twice in correctional proceedings, leaving large sums behind him following bankruptcies, and…on 27 occasions, including 25 by default for acts of driving.
12 months in prison, a fine of 2,000 euros, a professional ban of 10 years and confiscations up to the amounts diverted are claimed once morest the defendant. 6 months in prison, a fine of 500 euros and the confiscation of 15,000 euros are required once morest his partner, considered to be co-author of certain offenses by the prosecution.
Me Steinier says: “Money burns his fingers. He is a compulsive gambler, sickly, relatives present him as crazy, sick of the game, but today, they are ruined. He is also a worker, the money turns, but he plays it or manages it badly. In the context of the case, his cooperation was total. He also regularized breaches of social criminal law, in relation to his workers.”
A probationary stay is required for the defendant, the simple suspension of the pronouncement is pleaded for his companion.
Judgment September 7.
