The Namur Criminal Court on Wednesday imposed a fine of €4,800, with the amount exceeding €2,400 suspended for three years, on a defendant who fraudulently collected €33,491 in unemployment benefits.
The defendant, who was absent from a February hearing of the case, referred in her statements to a “long-term holiday” in Tenerife. She said she met a man and made a life on the island, but “forgot” to report him to Belgium and fraudulently received the unemployment benefits over a period of five years.
She will now have to repay the total amount she received - €33,491 -to the National Employment Office, ONEM. “A payment plan has been negotiated, she planned to pay €100 per month and is in the third month,” the defendant’s counsel said at the hearing.
For the Labour Inspection Office, it is clear that the defendant had left Belgium since 2017, at least. “She no longer has a vehicle listed in Belgium since 2012. The majority of her expenses are incurred in Tenerife. She only rarely returns to Belgium, to visit her parents in Profondeville or, she says, to attend job interviews.”
The defendant’s counsel pleaded for a work sentence, provided it does not exceed 100 hours. Otherwise, due to the distance involved, the defendant would be unable to comply because of the cost of travel, said her counsel, who also requested the longest possible suspension of the fine.
