Unmasking the construction worker who impersonated a police officer after an illness

Captain accepted... debt collection!

More than a year has passed, but the victims of the scam by Hoang Cong Loc (born in 1990), residing in Hung Loc commune, Vinh city, Nghe An province, still cannot explain why they blindly trusted Loc. Ms. LTT (born in 1988), residing in Nhu Xuan district, Thanh Hoa province, is one of the victims in the above scam case. Believing what Loc promised, Ms. T. had to collect more than 1.3 billion VND, which was all the savings of the couple and the money her parents-in-law had saved, but so far she has only recovered nearly 200 million VND.

It is known that Ms. LTT was born and raised in Quynh Chau commune, Quynh Luu district, Nghe An. After getting married, she followed her husband to Thanh Hoa to start a business. Ms. LTT has a younger sister who is only 2 years younger than her, Ms. LTC (born in 1990). The family has 2 sisters so they often call each other to talk about everything in life.

Around June 2022, Ms. LTC told her sister that she knew a man named Nguyen Hoang Viet Hieu (born in 1990) who worked at the Ministry of Public Security but due to orders from his superiors, he was assigned to Nghe An Police and held the position of Captain of the Criminal Police Team. Wanting to meet her friend, Ms. LTT invited her friend to Thanh Hoa many times to visit.

Ms. C. also brought Loc to her sister's house many times. Here, Hoang Cong Loc still introduced himself as Hieu, working at the Ministry of Public Security, currently assigned to the Nghe An Provincial Police and having many relationships in Nghe An and Thanh Hoa provinces, able to solve many related matters.

Every time he went to LTT's house, Loc invited 5 friends: Thang, Binh, Son, Huynh and Tuyen to go with him. To impress his girlfriend's family, Loc told his friends to call him "boss", and he addressed his friends as soldiers. Believing that Loc was really a police officer, his friends addressed him as Loc told them.

Hearing Loc introduce himself and the fact that his friends called him “boss” made LTT and her husband not have the slightest doubt. Knowing that her sister’s boyfriend had a wide network of connections, LTT asked Loc to intervene to get back the money they had contributed to buy an excavator with Mr. Kh. (in Nghia Loc commune, Nghia Dan district, Nghe An province). Loc agreed to help get back the debt and asked her and her husband to give them 75 million VND. Feeling relieved, LTT immediately transferred 75 million VND to Loc without writing any guarantee papers.

Not only that, Ms. LTT and her husband continued to ask Loc to discuss the change of land use purpose from garden land to residential land for the plot of land where she and her husband were living. Loc agreed, to make his girlfriend's sister and her husband trust him, Loc pretended to go out to get the phone to call to discuss work, and at the same time texted Ms. LTT that if she wanted to change the plot of land above, it would cost 1.2 billion VND.

LTT and her husband agreed, saying they would pay 200 million VND in advance and when would they receive the remaining amount?Certificate of Useland will be delivered.

On September 14, 2022, Loc came to Ms. LTT's house and said he needed money to complete the procedures to change the land use purpose. Loc promised to complete the procedures and receive the land use right certificate within a month. Ms. LTT and her husband gave the remaining amount of more than 1 billion VND to Loc without writing any documents.

After receiving the money, Loc did not contact anyone to get back the money that Ms. LTT's family had contributed to buy an excavator with Mr. Kh., and did not discuss with anyone the conversion of garden land into residential land. Loc used all of this money to buy 2 cars for a total of more than 800 million VND, and spent the remaining money on personal expenses.

Face revealed through illness

Also during that time, in early July 2022, through the introduction of Ms. LTT and her husband, Loc met Mr. TQT (residing in Nhu Xuan district, Thanh Hoa province). After many times going out to eat and hearing people introduce him, Mr. T. thought that Loc was a real police officer, so he confided in Loc that he was being prosecuted for "Gambling" and "Violating regulations on road traffic safety" and hoped to receive advice and help from Loc.

Seeing the opportunity, Loc immediately encouraged Mr. T. and promised that because of their close relationship, he would show him how to escape the crime. Loc told Mr. T. that thanks to his work at the Ministry of Public Security, he had many connections who could help him avoid prosecution and trial. However, because he was in the central government, the cost was quite high, but Loc promised 100% that he would be "acquitted".

Happy as if he had “struck gold”, Mr. T. immediately asked Loc to help him at any cost. To increase his credibility, Loc texted that he would go to Hanoi for a few days to inquire about work and then report to Ms. LTT and her husband. Exactly a few days later, Loc texted Ms. LTT to tell Mr. T. that the cost of “clearing the case” would be 2 billion VND because he was caught up in 2 crimes. Trusting Ms. LTT and her husband, Mr. T. immediately agreed and arranged to transfer the money.

On October 4, 2022, Mr. T. and his wife brought 2 billion VND to Ms. LTT's house to ask Loc to help them with the case. When handing over the money, Loc asked Ms. Th. to guarantee and write a loan paper for 2 billion VND from Mr. T. and his wife. Trusting her future brother-in-law, Ms. LTT agreed and wrote a loan paper, then gave all of this money to Loc. She and her husband did not know how Loc used this money and did not benefit from it.

After receiving the money, Loc did not contact anyone to help Mr. T. run the case, but used it to buy 2 cars for a total of more than 1.1 billion VND and pay off another person's debt of 250 million VND. Loc spent the remaining money on personal expenses and lent Ms. LTT and her husband 390 million VND to buy materials to build a house.

In early December 2022, Loc suffered from a stomach-related illness and was hospitalized for treatment. During his treatment, Ms. LTT and her husband also visited Loc. Through personal information and health insurance that Loc examined and treated at the hospital, Ms. LTT and her husband accidentally discovered that her future brother-in-law Nguyen Hoang Viet Hieu, who worked at the Ministry of Public Security, had now "changed his name" to Hoang Cong Loc with a declared occupation of self-employed worker. Shocked to realize that she had been deceived all this time, Ms. LTT confronted Loc directly.

Knowing that he could no longer hide it, on December 22, 2022, Hoang Cong Loc went to the police station of Nhu Xuan district (Thanh Hoa province) to surrender, confessed to all his crimes and handed over 20 million VND to remedy the consequences.

When the curtain falls

In early March 2024, the People's Court of Thanh Hoa province opened the first-instance trial of Hoang Cong Loc (born in 1990, residing in Hung Loc commune, Vinh city, Nghe An province) for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property".

It is known that Hoang Cong Loc was born into a family of 4 siblings. Due to difficult family circumstances, after finishing secondary school, Loc dropped out of school and stayed home to work for hire. In early 2022, according to some friends' introduction, Hoang Cong Loc went to Quynh Chau commune, Quynh Luu district (Nghe An province) to work as a construction worker. During his time working here, Loc got to know Mr. Nguyen Huu Thang, Mr. Nguyen Huu Binh, Nguyen Van Son, Nguyen Ba Huynh and Nguyen Huu Tuyen (all residing in Quynh Vinh commune, Hoang Mai town, Nghe An province).

To the above people, Loc also introduced himself as Nguyen Hoang Viet Hieu, who worked at the Ministry of Public Security and was now assigned to Nghe An Police, making the above group of friends trust him. At the time Loc invited him to his girlfriend's house to play, the above group of friends did not know that Loc had deceived Ms. LTT's family, so he was not considered criminally responsible in this case.

At the trial, Hoang Cong Loc confessed his crime. The defendant's testimony was consistent with the victim's testimony and the evidence and documents in the case file.

According to the indictment of the Procuracy, for the purpose of personal gain and wanting money for personal expenses, Hoang Cong Loc committed fraud and provided false information to appropriate other people's property. From August 18, 2022 to October 4, 2022, Loc appropriated a total of 3.31 billion VND from T.'s family and Ms. T.'s friend, and then Loc gave back 390 million VND to Ms. T. and her husband.

The victim's representative at the trial said: I trusted and blindly listened to Loc, leading to the loss of money and suffering. Therefore, I hope the panel of judges will consider an appropriate sentence so that Loc will be responsible for his actions, and at the same time, the defendant must be responsible for compensating the amount of money he received for the victims.

After comprehensively reviewing the content of the case, the People's Court sentenced defendant Hoang Cong Loc to 16 years in prison and ordered him to return to the victims the money he had embezzled.