Borrowing a motorbike to pawn gets 2 years in prison

(Baonghean.vn) - The young man went to a night porridge shop, pretended to borrow a motorbike to pick up a friend, then drove the motorbike to Vinh city to pawn it for money to spend.

On the morning of December 27, the People's Court of Quy Hop district opened a first-instance criminal trial of defendant Phan Van Hieu (born in 1994, residing in Don Mong hamlet, Chau Quang commune, Quy Hop) for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property".

According to the indictment, at 8:30 p.m. on September 7, Phan Van Hieu walked to Thanh Van porridge shop in the hamlet and met Vi Xuan Tai and Sam Vinh Quang (both residing in Ha Dong hamlet, Chau Cuong commune) eating in the shop.

Defendant Phan Van Hieu in court. Photo: Phan Giang

Hieu saw Tai's motorbike with license plate 37H1-157.26 parked in front of the shop and had the intention of stealing it. Hieu pretended to borrow the motorbike to pick up a friend, promising to return it later, and Tai agreed.

After getting the motorbike, Hieu drove to Bac Son commune to find a shop to pawn. Because it was late, Hieu asked to stay overnight at a house he didn't know in Bac Son commune. At 8am the next day, Hieu rode his motorbike to the Quan Banh intersection (Nghi Kim - Vinh city) and asked a man named Manh to take the motorbike to pawn for 4 million VND. Hieu gave Manh 200,000 VND, and used the rest for personal expenses.

Realizing he had been scammed, Mr. Vi Xuan Tai filed a report with the Quy Hop District Police. Hieu was later arrested and admitted to his fraudulent appropriation of property. Mr. Tai’s motorbike was valued at 30 million VND.

At the end of the trial, the panel sentenced Phan Van Hieu to 2 years in prison and ordered him to pay 30 million VND in compensation, equivalent to the value of the car, to the victim.

Previously, in 2015, Phan Van Hieu was sentenced by the People's Court of Quy Hop district to 12 months in prison for "fraudulent appropriation of property". In 2016, Hieu was sentenced to another 12 months in prison for "abuse of trust to appropriate property" and was released from prison in May 2017.

Phan Giang