Impersonating a criminal police officer of Nghe An police to defraud and avoid prosecution

On July 22, Nghe An Provincial People's Court opened a first-instance criminal trial of defendant Nguyen Van Huan (born 1982), residing in Nam Hung commune, Nam Dan district, for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property”.

Around November 2020, through social relationships, Huan learned that Ms. Tran Thi K. (residing in Dien Chau district) was planning to ask for her husband, who was a defendant in the case of "Illegal transportation of goods across the border" and "Transportation of prohibited goods", not to be prosecuted.

After talking on the phone, Huan arranged to meet Ms. K. at a coffee shop in Vinh City. When he met Ms. K., Huan pretended to be Huy, an officer of the Criminal Police Department of Nghe An Province Police, and promised to take care of her husband. Before leaving, Huan told Ms. K. to prepare money to take care of the procedures to "run the case".

Defendant Nguyen Van Huan. Photo: Tran Vu

From November 2020 to the end of December 2020 (lunar calendar), Huan asked Ms. K. 6 times to give him 260 million VND. After waiting for a while, seeing that Huan could not take care of the work as promised, Ms. K. asked for the money back.

At first, Huan only paid Mrs. K. 70 million VND. After being pressured many times, Huan went to Mrs. K.'s house to pay 190 million VND, but asked for 20 million VND for travel expenses and Mrs. K.'s relatives agreed.

On February 22, 2021, Ms. K. filed a complaint against Nguyen Van Huan for fraud to the investigation agency. During the process of working with the Nghe An Provincial Police Department, Huan confessed to his crime and voluntarily handed over 10 million VND.

At the trial, the defendant admitted to the fraud. At the same time, he asked for a lighter sentence because he claimed that he had remedied the consequences for the victim. For the crime of Fraudulent appropriation of property, Nguyen Van Huan was sentenced to 7 years in prison.