The Brussels Correctional Court sentenced Alain Nimegeers, a former MR elected official in the City of Brussels, to a 30-month suspended prison sentence and a fine of €1,600 last Thursday for corruption and fraud.
Nimegeers was accused of committing fraud against undocumented migrants, to whom he promised to regularise their stay in Belgium.
The fraud took place between 2011 and 2018 when Alain Nimegeers was a municipal councillor, police councillor, and councillor at the CPAS. In 2020, he was placed under arrest and charged, along with his accomplices.
In court, the former political representative admitted to having promised, in return for the payment of sums of money between €200 and €5,000, to about sixty people.
He also offered to provide them with support for the regularisation of their stay, for the granting of social aid or even social housing. Not only are these acts illegal, but they also contravened his duties as a Brussels councillor.
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Nimegeers set up this scam with other people, including a man who is now deceased. The latter was responsible for finding potential victims. The sums of money improperly obtained were divided between them.
The court emphasised “the seriousness of any act that consists of demanding sums of money from people in a precarious situation so that they have the hope of obtaining a pass”.
