Jailed for forcing students to put money in piggy banks and then robbing them

On June 11, the Can Tho City People's Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal for a suspended sentence of defendant Tran Van Mung (nearly 18 years old), upheld the first instance verdict, and sentenced Mung to 6 months in prison for extortion.

The panel of judges determined that the defendant had committed the crime many times. When he committed the crime, he was warned by the police but he did not give up and instead switched to other, more sophisticated forms of crime. The amount of money the defendant embezzled was not large, but the crime greatly affected the security and order situation in the locality, negatively affected the learning environment of the students, caused panic among the students, and potentially affected their academic results... Therefore, a severe punishment was needed to deter the defendant.

Defendant Mung at the appeal court on June 11. Photo: NN

According to the records, because he wanted money for personal use, around September 2017, Mung repeatedly went to the gate of Dong Hiep Secondary School (Dong Hiep Commune, Co Do District) to threaten to beat younger students if they did not agree to give him money, including 5 students: Danh, Thanh, Bao, Dat, Vinh and some other students. Because they were afraid of being beaten, these students gave Mung money ranging from 5,000 VND to 20,000 VND.

In addition, Mung also asked other students including Du, Qui and Khoe to ask other students for money and then give Mung from 5,000 VND to 10,000 VND every day.

When discovering the incident, the parents of the students reported it to Dong Hiep Commune Police for resolution.

After the commune police worked with Mung, Mung did not directly stand in front of the school gate to ask for money anymore but bought a piggy bank and put it in Mrs. NTT's tea shop. When the students went to the shop to drink tea, Mung glared at them, scaring them and they put money in it themselves.piggy bank

The total amount of money that Mung, Khoe, Qui, and Du had embezzled from the students was about 300,000 VND. Mung spent all of this money for personal use.

Students Khoe, Qui, Du have the same joyextortionof the students but at the time of the crime they were not old enough to be held criminally responsible so the police did not prosecute.

At the first instance trial in March 2018, the People's Court of Co Do district sentenced Mung to 6 months in prison for extortion. The defendant then appealed for a suspended sentence and the appellate court imposed the above sentence.