Female accountant embezzled more than 700 million VND for online gambling

On January 10, the People's Court of Nghe An province opened the first instance trial of defendant Dao Thi Thao (born 1993), residing in Ky Son commune, Tan Ky district (Nghe An) for the crime of "Abuse of trust to appropriate property".

According to case records, in October 2019, Dao Thi Thao was hired as an accountant by Ms. Thai Thi HP - owner of a construction materials store in Tan Ky town.

Thao's job is to record sales, deliver and receive money, collect money from customers... After collecting money, Thao must return it to the store owner.

After that, Thao was also assigned by Ms. P. to be the store's cashier. From April 2022 to February 2023, taking advantage of Ms. P.'s trust, Dao Thi Thao repeatedly collected money from customers but did not set up a fund according to regulations and spent all of it, amounting to nearly 500 million VND.

In addition, 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 appropriated the money.

The investigation agency determined that the total amount of money that Dao Thi Thao had embezzled from the construction materials store was more than 738 million VND.

At the trial, the defendant admitted to the crime as charged in the indictment. The defendant stated that he took advantage of the shop owner’s lack of management to embezzle money. The defendant used the money for online gambling.

After the case was exposed, the defendant fled to the South out of fear. Some time later, the defendant returned to his hometown and confessed to the crime to the police.

Before the trial took place, the defendant had influenced the family to recover all the money embezzled for the store.

The panel of judges determined that 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, the defendant's father-in-law participating in the resistance war, and the defendant is currently raising a young child.

Considering the case as a whole, the People's Court sentenced Dao Thi Thao to 7 years in prison for abuse of trust to appropriate property.