Fraudsters who duped Amsterdam in court Thursday

A court in Amsterdam will this week open the trial against five people who defrauded the city for €40,000.

The five, among whom a counterfeiter and an intern, had intercepted an €186,000 invoice from a recycling company in Brabant, reworked it and altered the bank account number, after which the intern placed it back on top of the “payables” pile. The bank paid out, but tried to paddle back on the transaction when the bank account number raised red flags. By the time they verified the number with the municipality and froze the account, the fraudsters had withdrawn €40,000. The intern and the counterfeiter were arrested, as were two people who had allowed them to use their bank accounts and a person who connected them all. The trial will be opened on Thursday. Initial reporting about the court case caused some confusion over the weekend, with its suggestion that it regarded a civil case Amsterdam had initiated against a man from Brabant who refused to pay back €186,000 the city had mistakenly transferred to his account. According to the ANP reports the man had gone on a shopping spree after noticing the funds on his account, splurging on a caravan and paying off debts he owed. The reports that were refuted on Monday morning by the city stated that when the mistake was noticed, the man was instructed to pay back, but by then he had spent the money. Jules van der Ven, spokesman at the municipality said he had no knowledge of any mistake.