Sentence reduced for impersonating police officer and telecommunications employee to defraud 3.3 billion VND

On the morning of April 25, at the People's Court of Nghe An province, the Hanoi High People's Court opened a criminal appeal trial of defendants Pham Dinh Luan (born 1993) and Nguyen Huu Thu (born 1991), both residing in Huong My commune, Luong Tai district (Bac Ninh) for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property". The trial was opened due to an appeal for a reduction in the sentences of the two defendants.

According to the indictment, in early August 2018, Luan received a phone call from Nguyen Van Phi (28 years old), Luan's wife's cousin, residing in Luc Nam district, Bac Giang. Phi asked Luan to find someone to open bank accounts and ATM cards, promising to pay 3 million VND for each card.

Pham Dinh Luan and Nguyen Huu Thu at the trial. Photo: Khanh An

After that, Pham Dinh Luan found Nguyen Huu Thu and Nguyen Dinh Phi (born in 1999) and asked them to go to banks, open a total of 15 bank accounts, and get 15 ATM cards. After that, Luan asked someone to send them to Taiwan for Nguyen Van Phi. Luan also discussed with Thu and Phi to make fake ID cards and continue to create bank cards and then sell them to Nguyen Van Phi to avoid detection by authorities.

From Taiwan, Nguyen Van Phi called and agreed with Luan, Dinh Phi, and Thu that when the victims' money was transferred to their accounts, they would withdraw the cash. Nguyen Van Phi promised to give Luan, Thu, and Pham Dinh Phi 20% of the total amount of money embezzled.

In just a short period of time, the subjects have committed the act of appropriating money from victims in many different provinces 5 times. The total amount of money that the subjects illegally profited was about 3.3 billion VND. Of which, the victim who was cheated the least was Ms. Hoang Thi Phong L. (Nghe An) 169 million VND, the person who lost the most money was Bui Thi Hong T. (Khanh Hoa) more than 2.4 billion VND.

While Luan, Thu and Phi were arrested, Nguyen Van Phi escaped and is currently wanted. At the first instance trial held at the end of November 2018, the defendants stated that all the steps of calling and tricking the victims into depositing money into the cards were carried out by Nguyen Van Phi. This group of young men only followed Phi's instructions to withdraw money from ATM cards and send it to Phi to receive a percentage. The first instance court sentenced defendants Pham Dinh Luan to 15 years in prison, Nguyen Huu Thu to 14 years in prison, and Pham Dinh Phi to 8 years in prison; forcing the defendants to jointly compensate the victims for the amount of money they had defrauded and appropriated.

After that, Pham Dinh Luan and Nguyen Huu Thu filed an appeal for a reduction in their sentences. In court, Luan stated that his appeal was because his family had relatives of martyrs, and his family had compensated part of the victims for their losses. Right in court, under the witness of the panel of judges, the relatives of defendant Luan compensated the victims with 50 million VND.

The representative of the People's Procuracy said that the defendants' actions had seriously affected the rights of others. However, in this case, the two defendants Luan and Thu were accomplices, not the masterminds of the case, and did not directly deceive the victims, so there was a basis to reduce the defendants' sentences.

Considering the case in its entirety, the Court of Appeal decided to reduce the sentences for the defendants. Sentenced Pham Dinh Luan to 12 years in prison and Nguyen Huu Thu to 12 years in prison for "fraudulent appropriation of property".