A messy entrepreneur or a criminal scammer? The public prosecutor produces eleven complaints against roofer Gert-Jan (51), which are quite similar. He rang the doorbell of mostly elderly couples, told them about the bad condition of their roof, asked for advance payments, had some roof tiles or insulation boards delivered, sometimes set up a roof lift or some scaffolding, repaired a small thing, but usually didn’t say anything anymore. .
He managed to bind half the streets between 2017 and 2019 – there are about six victims in the courtroom. Occasionally there is mocking laughter as the suspect portrays himself favorably. Gert-Jan is present via Skype, from a large screen. The hearing initially threatened to be canceled for the fourth time – the suspect now stayed away “because of the flu”. But the multiple criminal chamber promptly arranges another courtroom with video screen. And whether the lawyer can persuade his client to participate from his sick bed.
Through an incidentally faltering connection, we see the suspect at home, with his head on a pillow, defending himself passionately. The sanitary stop after two hours of question and answer is also received live by the courtroom.
Was this legally an ‘ordinary’ breach of contract that the citizen must resolve with a claim for damages before the (civil) subdistrict court? Or was this criminal fraud, whereby the roofer deliberately, in a ‘false capacity’ through ‘crafty artifices’ or a ‘fabric of fictions’, defrauded his customers of money?
Gert-Jan’s lawyer is sure that the Public Prosecution Service is being used here as collection by dissatisfied customers. His client has never pretended to be a roofer, never asked for money for anything other than roofing. His costs were not excessive. Perhaps he was careless and often late. But “that’s just how construction works”. For the rest, the weather was often against. And there were communication problems and material issues. The plan often went wrong. But criminal ‘cheating’?
Gert-Jan explains the cause of the problems in full to his customers who ‘sabotaged’ him as soon as they had stumbled upon his past thanks to google. He often appears in regional court records. He has already been convicted twice: high advances, holding vulnerable customers on a leash. With one older client, he managed to spread the work out over ten years and at the same time take out about two tons in private loans.
In addition to the 24 months in prison, the officer demands 10 months ‘probation’ from a previous sentence, of which the probation period was still running. Plus a five-year professional ban and a ban on being allowed to manage a private limited company. He believes that Gert-Jan only pretended to be a bona fide entrepreneur, never intended to do more than provide material, and deliberately took advantage of his customers. What helps the Public Prosecution Service to prove fraud is that Gert-Jan used his wife’s last name with some customers. He also left non-existent mobile numbers.
Gert-Jan strongly denies. Even if the judge shows a receipt for an advance that he signed with his wife’s name.
Planned, coercive, shrewd and brutal – that was his behaviour, says the officer. Such a thing “reflects negatively on the entire construction.” Who wants him in jail for “as long as possible”.
Gert-Jan blames “quarreling customers” who tried to blackmail him with the months he had to serve earlier.
The court finds a month later that seven of the eleven cases have been proven and sentenced him to 23 months in prison. One month ‘discount’ because the case took too long. In addition, he must serve the ten months of the previous conviction. And he is kicked out of the roofing profession for five years. In the seven cases, the court awarded damages of more than 45,000 euros. Gert-Jan has deceptively abused the social expectation that a roofer has certain expertise that can be relied on in good faith. The court finds Gert-Jan someone who from the outset had no intention of getting started and who deliberately lied about it.
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of January 3, 2022
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