A Dutch amateur footballer has pleaded guilty to fraud and forgery after scamming teams in South Africa, Chile, Denmark and Transnistria into offering him a contract.
Bernio Jordan Enzo Verhagen has been sentenced to 15 months imprisonment as well as deportation from Denmark as part of his sentencing, which was handed down on Tuesday.
The Dutchman will also be required to pay a fine while covering the cost of the case, which has seen him scam clubs across several continents.
Verhagen's story began with a move to FC Dinamo-Auto in Transnistria, a small club in a Moldovan breakaway state.
He did not made an appearance for the club before earning a contract with South African side Cape Town FC, where he stayed for only a month before departing once again without playing a game.
Next up was a contract at Chilean club Audax Italiano, where he once again left after a few months and zero total appearances.
This time, he moved to Viborg FF as he and his Chilean girlfriend, Nayaret Muci, moved to Denmark, beginning their stay in the country in October 2019.
Verhagen had told Bold that he had previously had trials with Naestved and Randers, which the Danish outlet proved to be false.
Soon after, Verhagen was accused of kidnapping by Muci, with the club's investigation into the player leading to the realisation that the team had been scammed.
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According to Vice, Verhagen had largely trained alone at each club, with the sides never getting a true look at his ability on the field.
Meanwhile, the Dutch federation had no records of Verhagen ever transferring abroad.
Viborg then released a statement detailing Verhagen's signing, stating that they offered the Dutchman a contract after coming into contact with who they believed to be Stellar Group, an agency that represents the likes of Gareth Bale, Mason Mount and Jack Grealish.
However, the club soon realised that the emails were fraudulent, with their correspondence coming with an address that ended in '.co' instead of '.co.uk'.
On November 26, the club terminated Verhagen's contract and reported the case to police - he was arrested that same day.
In December, though, Verhagen managed to escape custody during transportation to court, only to be found hours later in a basement.
He was then found guilty of assault, robbery, illegal coercion, threats and escaping police in June and sentenced to 15 months in prison for the crimes all before being handed additional sentencing for fraud on Tuesday.