The extreme pain of a poor couple who had to sell their house because their daughter was addicted to gambling

Deep into gambling, female accountant "embezzles" from store

The trial of the defendant Dao Thi Thao (32 years old), residing in Ky Son commune, Tan Ky district (Nghe An) for the crime of “Abuse of trust to appropriate property” took place on a day in early January. From early morning, a couple with gaunt figures were present in the courtroom. They are the defendant’s parents, attending the trial as interested parties.

Seeing their daughter being escorted to court, the grandparents quickly looked over with tears in their eyes. Thao used to be the pride of her grandparents when she had a university degree and found a job in her field after graduation. For a farming family in a poor rural area, raising a child to go to university like her grandparents was a great effort.

However, the child that the grandparents were once proud of in front of the neighbors now had to stand before the court for the crime of abusing trust and misappropriating property. The consequences that Thao caused not only made the defendant himself suffer but also dragged his parents and family into a great tragedy.

The incident began when Dao Thi Thao was hired by Ms. Thai Thi HP - the owner of a building materials store in Tan Ky town - as an accountant in October 2019. Thao's duties were to record sales books, deliver and receive goods, collect money from customers... In addition, Thao was also trusted by Ms. P. and assigned to be the store's cashier.

According to the indictment, from April 2022 to February 2023, taking advantage of Ms. P.'s trust, Dao Thi Thao repeatedly collected money from customers but did not deposit it in the fund according to regulations but spent it all, amounting to nearly 500 million VND.

In addition to the above crimes, Thao also took construction materials from the store for personal use. In addition, when Ms. P. asked her to withdraw cash from the store, Thao fraudulently deducted some money for personal use.

The incident only came to light when Ms. P. checked the books and asked some customers for their debts, and they said they had paid the debt to the accountant. Alarmed, the store owner quickly met Thao to question her about everything. Thao admitted to the crime and explained that she had spent all the money she had embezzled.

Although the store owner gave Thao time to return the money, the employee fled. Some time later, the subject returned to her hometown, turned herself in to the police and admitted to her crime. The investigation agency determined that the total amount of money that Dao Thi Thao had embezzled from the building materials store was more than 738 million VND.

At the witness stand, the defendant admitted to the crime as charged in the indictment. The defendant stated that while working as an accountant, the cashier took advantage of the trust and lack of management of the store owner to embezzle money in many ways. Sometimes the defendant collected money from customers but did not record it in the book, sometimes the defendant took construction materials from the store. Or when the owner sent money to the bank to withdraw money, the defendant also secretly "embezzled". The defendant stated that he gambled online and lost all the stolen money.

Poor parents have nowhere to go because of "saving" their children

Before the trial took place, the defendant had influenced his family to recover all the money that had been embezzled for the store. This was the amount of money that Mr. Dao VC (born in 1969, defendant's father) and his wife had earned by selling all their assets over many years of savings.

Presented in court, the defendant’s father’s voice trembled: “The child is foolish, the mother bears it.” Even though our daughter is married and living on her own, we cannot turn a blind eye because we love her. At first, my wife and I sold two buffaloes to help people make up for the damage, but it was not enough. As a last resort, we had to hold back our tears and sell the house we were living in to get money to pay off our daughter’s debt.”

According to this austere man, his wife and he worked hard all their lives to build a house for their family to live in, but in the end they had to sell it. Now that they are old and weak, and have no house, he is worried about what the future holds. Having said that, he raised his hand to wipe away his tears. Sitting next to him, his wife lowered her head to the table, sobbing.

The courtroom seemed to stand still as it witnessed the pain of the miserable couple. They tried to help their daughter to remedy the consequences for the victim, hoping that their daughter would only receive the lowest sentence possible so that she could soon return to rebuild her life and take care of her two young children.

Having the last word before the court deliberated, Thao cried continuously. Her eyes were red, the female defendant clasped her hands, turned to the victim and apologized. "I know it's too late now, but please let me apologize. I was wrong," the defendant apologized to Ms. P.

Then, Thao turned to where her parents were sitting, choking up as she apologized. The defendant apologized for her mistake that had implicated her parents. Because of her own mistake, her parents now have no place to live when they are old and weak. The apology of the erring child was interrupted by the sobs of the defendant and her parents. Finally, Thao asked the Trial Council to consider a lower sentence than the proposed sentence of the representative of the People's Procuracy of Nghe An province (from 8 to 9 years in prison) so that she could soon have the opportunity to return to take care of her two young children and rebuild her life.

During the deliberation, in the hallway of the court, Mr. C. stood shivering from the cold. The haggard man with dark skin rubbed his hands to warm them up, then took out a crumpled cigarette. He smoked the cigarette unconsciously as he looked at the child who had left his family without a place to live.

He confided that after selling the house and land to someone else, out of pity for his wife and him not having a place to live, the landlord let them stay temporarily for a while. “We don’t know where we will live in the future when the house is transferred to someone else. My wife and I will probably have to find an empty plot of land to build a hut to live day by day,” Mr. C. held back a sigh…

Returning to the case, the panel of judges determined that although in this case the defendant had an aggravating circumstance of committing the crime two or more times. However, it is also necessary to consider many mitigating circumstances for the defendant such as remorse, having influenced the family to remedy all the consequences for the victim, and the defendant is raising a young child. Therefore, the court sentenced Dao Thi Thao to 7 years in prison.

When being escorted home, the defendant turned back to look at his parents with red eyes. But those tears were now too late as the defendant had indirectly pushed his parents out of the house. From now on, the poor couple did not know where to stay for the rest of their lives…