A magistrate in the West Flemish city of Bruges has remanded the home nurse and local councillor Stefanie Sander in custody for a further month. Ms Sander was arrested on Monday on suspicion of large-scale social security fraud. She is accused of, over a period of several years, having billed the health mutual for work she had not carried out. The extent of the fraud allegedly runs into millions of euro.
When her arrest was reported in the media on Tuesday, she was expelled from Vlaams Belang, the far-right party that she had represented on the local council in Houthulst (West Flanders). Ms Sander was arrested with her partner, her mother and an employee. During a search of her home 17 luxury cars, cash and other goods were seized. She was formally arrested on Tuesday. She has now been remanded in custody for a month. He partner has been released on conditional bail.
Over a period of many years Stefanie Sander allegedly billed for work she had not done or over-charged for work that she had carried out. Sources say that she billed for as many as 90 visits a day and continued to do so over a period of years. It is generally accepted that it isn’t possible to do many more than 20 home visits a day.
Ms Sander first came to the attention of the health mutuals and the National Institute for Health and Disability Insurance (RIZIV) in 2017. She is believed to owe RIZIV a total of 1.7 million euro.