PHILIPSBURG--Kadaster Director Clemens Roos, who was arrested June 24, on request of the Netherlands in connection with a pending sentence for fraud with social benefits, has to sit out 475 days in prison.

 

The National Prosecutor's Office in the Netherlands said Wednesday, Roos was sentenced for having committed large-scale fraud with social benefits in the 1990s.

 

Roos (55), who was born in Suriname, was found guilty of having committed fraud in 1995 and 1996, while he was employed by the Social Insurance Bank in the Netherlands. Together with another person, he deliberately drafted and approved several false applications for old-age pension AOW, for persons who were living outside of the Netherlands, the National Prosecutor's Office stated.

 

The Court of First Instance sentenced Roos to 22 months, six of which were suspended, in December 1997. The judge also ordered him to pay almost 38,500 euros in damages to the Social Insurance Bank or 300 days' imprisonment, in case of non-compliance. Roos filed for appeal, but was irrevocably convicted by the High Court in The Hague in 2011.

 

It still took over three years before the Kadaster Head was arrested in St. Maarten. The Dutch National Prosecutors explain this in stating that Roos had left the Netherlands without leaving an address.

 

"It took much time and effort to trace his address. From research by the Fugitive Active Search Team (FAST) it emerged that the man would have been employed and living in St. Maarten," the National Prosecutors stated.

 

It was erroneously added that Roos holds a senior government post here; however, the Kadaster is not a government entity, but an independent foundation.

 

The Daily Herald