Many policemen even mortgage their police identity cards to borrow money.

Colonel Nguyen Phan Khoi, Chief of Duyen Hai Town Police (Tra Vinh), said he is encouraging police officers who borrow money from people to come up with a plan to repay their debts soon. For officers and soldiers who use police identification to borrow money, the unit will take disciplinary action according to industry regulations.

"We have informed the parents of the children who borrowed the money so that the family knows. Using police identification to borrow money is wrong," said Colonel Khoi.

"Pawn" the Party card to borrow money

According to Mr. Phi (the names of the characters in the article have been changed, in Ward 1, Duyen Hai Town), on February 1, Lieutenant Nguyen, working at the Traffic Police Department of Duyen Hai Town Police, came to his house to borrow 330 million VND with the purpose of "repaying bank debt". The traffic police officer wrote a receipt, promising to pay Mr. Phi within 2 days but then broke his promise.

"After a few days of overdue payment, I called to ask for the money, but Mr. Nguyen said he had no means to pay. Every time he asked for the money, he promised to pay within 10 days, but after so many times, he still did not do so. When he borrowed the money, Mr. Nguyen gave me his police ID card to keep," said Mr. Phi.

In addition to Lieutenant Nguyen, Mr. Phi also holds many police identification cards of many officers and soldiers working at Duyen Hai Town Police, PA72 Tra Vinh Police and Ben Gia Prison (under the General Department VIII of the Ministry of Public Security, located in Duyen Hai). These people have credit relationships with Mr. Phi and they give their "industry cards" to creditors as collateral.

During the process of verifying Mr. Phi's complaint, the reporter also discovered that in addition to the People's Police ID card, some police officers also used Party membership cards to borrow money. Among them, a lieutenant officer gave the borrower both types of documents at the same time. When the inspection was organized, the police officer asked to receive the original document back, then photocopied and signed the "certified copy" to give to the creditor.

Creditors denounce "abuse of trust"

According to the lender's complaint, Lieutenant Nguyen said he used the money to "repay the bank loan." This meant that Mr. Nguyen would later be re-lent by the bank and be able to repay the debt to Mr. Phi.

"Maybe Mr. Nguyen did not 'roll over the bank loan' but used it for other purposes so he did not have money to pay me. If he used the money for the wrong purpose to borrow money from me and then did not pay back the debt, he has signs of abuse of trust and misappropriation of property. Mr. Huynh is the same," Mr. Phi explained.

Speaking to reporters, Lieutenant Nguyen said he was on leave to return to his hometown to "run" money to pay off his debt. This traffic police officer said the reason for breaking trust with Mr. Phi was because his family was in financial difficulty, and promised to fulfill his obligations as a borrower in 10 days to get his police ID back.

Similarly, Lieutenant Huynh also admitted that he owed Mr. Phi hundreds of millions of dong and was unable to pay.

"It's not just me here, there are many people who owe Phi money. I didn't give him my police ID," said the criminal police officer.

According to Colonel Nguyen Phan Khoi, the unit has received a complaint from Mr. Phi. However, this is a civil transaction, those who borrow money must pay Mr. Phi. In case the borrower does not pay, the creditor will sue in court for a judgment.

Lawyer Nguyen Van Duc (Can Tho City Bar Association) said that the transaction of mortgaging the industry card between the police and Mr. Phi was to secure the loan. This is a civil transaction, if one of the parties violates the contract, the other party has the right to request the competent authority to resolve it.

"The police card used as collateral in this case has more credit significance than value significance. Using the industry card for this purpose is very offensive and will affect the image of the People's Police," said lawyer Duc./.