Plan to steal 6 billion VND in the package of the busboy

(Baonghean.vn) - Binh made a plan and then asked Duong to join him in stealing more than 6 billion VND in a package sent on a passenger bus. When arrested for fighting, Binh confessed to all his actions.

On the afternoon of November 17, the Provincial People's Court held the first instance trial of the case of "Theft of property", "Illegal possession of military weapons", "Failure to report a crime" against Nguyen Thanh Binh (born 1984), Cao Ngoc Duong (born 1989), Cao Ngoc Minh (born 1996) and Phan Bui Thong (born 1993), all residing in Vinh City.

In 2003, Nguyen Thanh Binh was sentenced by the Hanoi People's Court to 15 months in prison but given a suspended sentence for "Extortion of property". Only 2 months later, Binh was sentenced by the Vinh City People's Court to 9 months in prison for "Theft of property". Combining the old sentence, Binh had to serve a 2-year prison sentence. After being released from prison, Binh applied to work as a bus assistant for Tuan Thuy bus company. While working as a bus assistant, Binh learned that the bus company occasionally received money from customers to send to Hanoi, so he thought of a way to steal it.

The defendants at the trial. Photo: Nhu Binh

On February 15, 2017, a female passenger sent a package on bus 37B-019.xx (not Binh's bus) to Hanoi. Binh observed that the owner put it in a trunk on the bus, locked it carefully, so he took action.

That same evening, Binh bought a mask, put on a hat to cover his face, pretended to have a broken arm, and got into the car with Cao Ngoc Duong. Taking advantage of the time when the passenger had not yet boarded the car, Duong warned Binh to open the trunk and take the package and hide it on his person. After taking the package, the two pretended to go to the restroom and then escaped.

Inside the package were 220,000 USD, 600,000 Thai Baht, 912,000 Japanese Yen and 669,300 New Taiwan Dollars, which is more than 6 billion VND in Vietnamese currency. Binh took 2/3 of the above amount, divided 1/3 for Duong and gave Cao Ngoc Minh 3,000 USD.

On the evening of February 16, Cao Ngoc Duong, Cao Ngoc Minh and some other young men had a conflict with another group of young men while singing karaoke. Duong called Phan Bui Thong to bring weapons to "deal with" his opponent. Thong brought an AK, a Samlet and 35 bullets, and went with Duong to find his opponent, but was discovered by the 113 Police and taken to the Vinh City Police headquarters for questioning.

While working at the police station, knowing that he could not hide his theft of property on the Tuan Thuy bus, Duong turned himself in and confessed to the whole incident. On February 18, Nguyen Thanh Binh also turned himself in to the police station.

At the trial, the defendants confessed their crimes and asked for leniency from the law to help them rebuild their lives. The owner of the money also filed a petition to reduce the defendants’ sentences.

The panel of judges determined that in this case, Nguyen Thanh Binh was the initiator and direct perpetrator of the crime, had a bad personal history, and needed to be given a sentence that was sufficiently deterrent and preventable. Cao Ngoc Duong played an active supporting role in the case of “Theft of property”.

Considering the entire case, the role and position of each defendant as well as other aggravating and mitigating circumstances, the panel sentenced Nguyen Thanh Binh to 8 years in prison for “Theft of property”; Cao Ngoc Duong to 7 years in prison for “Theft of property” and 1 year in prison for “Illegal possession of military weapons”; Phan Bui Thong to 12 months in prison for “Illegal possession of military weapons”; Cao Ngoc Minh to 9 months in prison for “Failure to report a crime”.

Nhu Binh