On the second hearing day of the construction fraud trial, the justice department yesterday came up with a hefty penalty demand against the ex-provincial official who did a lot of remodeling at home-at the expense of construction company Janssen de Jong.

In retrospect, yes in hindsight, Jan S. from Voerendaal does feel angry with himself, he admitted this Wednesday morning before the judge in Den Bosch. While behind him former director Rob A. of Janssen de Jong Infra and ex-JaJo managers Jordy R. and Mark J. invoke their right to remain silent, from S.'s mouth comes a cascade of explanations for the evidence that the justice system is holding up to him: incriminating records, witness statements and tapes showing that the former provincial highways official and his wife Dagmar M. were fêted for an estimated 80,000 euros by construction company JaJo.

Not with candy trips but in the form of a baby shower at Castle Ter Worm in Heerlen and numerous 'niceties' for the house: new shutters, a designer air conditioner, a dormer, blinds and so on. And all at the expense of the construction company, which in return saw in Jan S. a partner in crime with the province. Dagmar was the point of contact for the renovations and billing to JaJo. Meanwhile, S. developed unnoticed increasingly into a walking billboard for JaJo within the county.

The company dragged in a lot of work through the sensitive information S. leaked, according to the prosecution. Even for jobs that in all likelihood were never done. For example, in late 2008 S. called Mark J. to tell him "there was still a budget of 20,000 euros left." To that budget was sought a job, an emergency repair to the N281 about which no report was ever received within the province at the time. S. claims the 19,450 euros to the construction company was an advance, an accounting trick to finance future emergency repairs. "A very normal practice in governments," the former official said. JordyR., whose name appeared on some of the envelopes of the invoices JaJo paid for the renovations at S.'s house, also had a role in the bribery scandal, according to the justice department. But the justice system could not really make that role concrete.S. is shocked by the sentence of one year of unconditional imprisonment hanging over his head. Like the official from Spijkenisse suspected of bribery who had to appear in the corruption trial last Monday, the former county official seems to be throwing it on the friendship tactic. The gifts he received were not even real gifts, S says. All the renovations, he says, were neatly reimbursed.Admittedly excluding VAT. "But that was the friend benefit I got from R. and J., whom I know well from the old days. That there are no receipts of that is because it was black money.We had a fair amount at home."

Stupid things he may have done, such as withdrawing money from the eye of the tax authorities. "I also find it very bad that the prosecution has drawn this to the civil service and to corruption, while my bond with Jordy and Mark arose out of friendship," said the at times emotional S. To reinforce his story, he had even brought a class photo from the past showing him, Mark J. and Jordy R. Remarkably, Mark J. described S. in his interrogations purely as a business associate. He called S. a link in the acquisition for JaJo. The prosecutor emphasized, "If you are in a photo together, you are not yet friends."