Former Roda JC director Ton Caanen (55) has been sentenced to 240 hours of community service. According to the judge, he committed forgery and fraud when purchasing a home in 2015.
Former director Wim Collard (60) and former Roda commissioner Hessel Meijer (63) were also sentenced to community service of 80 and 120 hours respectively.
In 2015, the trio still worked at the football club. The then technical director Caanen wanted to buy a house in Spaubeek and needed a mortgage of 800,000 euros. According to the judge, it has been proven that his colleague Collard, then general manager, helped him by increasing Caanen’s salary on paper.
Meijer, who had been associated with the club for years in various roles at the time, is said to have put Caanen on his company’s payroll, artificially increasing his monthly income. He would also have transferred 100,000 euros to Caanen. This made the director’s equity seem greater. It convinced the bank, Caanen got his mortgage.
Collaboration
The judge spoke of a ‘close and conscious collaboration’ between the men, writes 1Limburg. “Collard and Meijer knew what Caanen used the pieces for.”
Caanen was not given a prison sentence, as the justice had demanded. “The handling of this case has taken a long time and the case has been picked up by the media. That has had an impact on Caanen and his family. Moreover, he has not been convicted before.”
