Marathon cancelled after safety plan drawn up by bogus medic

June 16, 2026

A marathon in Friesland has had to be cancelled at the last minute because organisers hired a bogus ambulance worker with no medical qualifications to draw up its safety plan.

The municipal council in Sneek withdrew the permit for the event on Saturday, June 20, after discovering that the company that submitted the plan was owned by a 22-year-old nursing student who was given a 15-month jail sentence for posing as an emergency worker.

The man was prosecuted after he and another man treated a woman who fell unwell and tried to take her to hospital during the Sneekweek community festival last August.

First aid responders who arrived on the scene quickly realised the duo were not trained medical staff and alerted police, who reported them to the prosecution service.

Organisers of the Sneek marathon were unaware the fraudster was behind MSG Ambulancenzorg, the company that drew up the safety plan for the event, until police in Groningen alerted council officials. DutchNews