Three doctor’s assistents and three other suspects accused of providing fake coronavirus vaccination passes to people who had not had the jabs appeared in court on Monday, five years after the pandemic.

The justice department was alerted to the case when Juek Mar L (30) was arrested for a drugs-related offence and police found an advert for the fake passes on his phone.

The “coronavirus pass”, a digital certificate that enabled people who had been vaccinated or recovered from Covid to go to museums and events,  was introduced in September 2021 and phased out in February 2022.

While it was in use, people could only go to events or visit bars if they had a digital pass, proof they had been vaccinated, a negative test result, or a certificate of recovery. 

L was in a relationship with Diarra D (34) who worked at a doctor’s practice in the centre of Amsterdam, catering mainly to expats, tourists and refugees. D asked her colleague Zohra E to register the names of purchasers into the system while her husband Abdellah M was also allegedly actively recruiting clients for passes.

The two women have admitted to being involved in the fraud, saying they had been drawn into the fraud and were sorry.

According to the public prosecutor, Cindy K (56) who also worked at the practice and whose brother ran a coronavirus testing centre, was party to the fraud as well.  Both deny any involvement.

The perpetrators made hundreds to €1,000 from the coronavisus passes but several suspects said they could not remember because of the events took place almost five years ago.

The public prosecution office, which will be formulating the sentence demand on Tuesday, did not say why it had taken so long to bring the case to court and the public prosecution department has already said the suspects will not face jail sentences.

The fraud case is one of many that took place during the pandemic, with the worst perpetrators possibly selling tens of thousands of fake QR codes.