Fake police officer swindles six cheap mobile phones from students.

On the afternoon of September 17th, the People's Court of Tan Ky District tried the criminal case against Vu Anh Tuan (born in 1985), residing in Hamlet 3, Dang Son Commune (Do Luong District), for the crime of fraud and appropriation of property.

At approximately 9:45 AM on April 10, 2019, Tuan drove his blue motorcycle with license plate 37H6 - 2499 into the yard of the row of rental houses belonging to Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy's family in Block 7, Tan Ky town, to meet a friend. Upon arriving, Tuan did not see anyone, so he sat and waited.

At around 10 a.m. that same day, seeing seven students, all born in 2001 or 2002, residing in Phu Son, Nghia Dong, Nghia Binh, and Tan Huong communes, returning home from school, Tuan conceived the idea of ​​stealing their belongings.

The suspect is Vu Anh Tuan. Photo: Phuong Hao

As Pham Hong Son, residing in Tan Lam hamlet, Phu Son commune, was preparing to open the door, Tuan approached and asked, "What grade are you in?" Son replied, "I'm in 12th grade." Tuan then introduced himself as "Hoang Anh, Team Leader of the Investigation Team (Tan Ky District Police), investigating a case of students organizing gambling in this area," and demanded that Son open the door so he could enter the room to ambush and catch the gamblers.

Hearing this, Son believed him and opened the door to let Tuan in. After entering Son's room, the two talked for a while, then Son left the room to photocopy his ID card, so Tuan continued to other rented rooms. Using the same tactic, Tuan boasted: "I work in the drug investigation team, I know that many of you in this rented room use crystal meth and other addictive substances. You must not reveal this to anyone so I can investigate." Hearing Tuan say this, all the girls believed him and said nothing. At this time, Son returned. Tuan continued to ask: "Are you involved in the high school students organizing gambling in this area?" The girls replied that they knew nothing.

Afterward, Tuan demanded that the students hand over all their mobile phones to assist the police investigation. Before handing them over, the students had to disable screen lock passwords, turn off their phones, and write down the screen lock passwords on a piece of paper for Tuan.

Illustrative image

Without a moment's hesitation, the students obediently followed all of Tuan's instructions. After stealing six mobile phones of various types with a total value of over 11 million VND, the suspect then asked Son to take his motorbike and go with him to the district police station. After traveling a short distance, the suspect stopped the motorbike and told Son to return to the boarding house to pick up another female student to go to the police station with him. Waiting for Son to leave, Tuan immediately sped away with the "loot" in the direction of Do Luong.

Upon arriving in Do Luong, Tuan took the six stolen phones to the phone shop of Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong, residing in Hamlet 11, Da Son Commune, to sell them. Tuan told Ms. Huong: "I was collecting debts, and they didn't have money to pay, so they paid with phones." He then unlocked each phone one by one. Ms. Huong believed Tuan and bought the six phones for 2.5 million dong.

After realizing they had been scammed, the students went to the Tan Ky District Police Station to report the incident.

After a period of investigation, on April 25, 2019, the Criminal Investigation Agency of Tan Ky District Police issued a decision to initiate a criminal case and prosecute Vu Anh Tuan for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property". During the investigation, the suspect fled the area, so the Criminal Investigation Agency of Tan Ky District Police issued an arrest warrant for Vu Anh Tuan.

At approximately 10:00 AM on August 11, 2019, police officers apprehended the suspect in Nhu Hoa commune, Kim Son district, Ninh Binh province. The Tan Ky District Police task force escorted Vu Anh Tuan to the district police station for questioning and clarification. There, the suspect confessed to all his crimes.

According to the asset valuation report by the Criminal Procedure Asset Valuation Council of Tan Ky District, the total value of the six mobile phones at the time they were stolen was 11.1 million VND.

It is known that Tuan has been imprisoned three times for the crimes of "Fraudulent appropriation of property" and "Theft of property," with a total sentence of 63 months.

At the end of the trial, the panel of judges sentenced Tuan to 18 months in prison.