Female accountant embezzles over 700 million VND to gamble online.

On January 10th, the People's Court of Nghe An province held a first-instance trial to hear the case against defendant Dao Thi Thao (born in 1993), residing in Ky Son commune, Tan Ky district (Nghe An province), for the crime of "Abusing trust to appropriate property".

According to the case file, in October 2019, Dao Thi Thao was hired as an accountant by Thai Thi HP, the owner of a building materials store in Tan Ky town.

Thảo's duties include keeping sales records, handling payments, collecting money from customers, etc. After collecting the money, Thảo has to hand it over to the shop owner.

Later, 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 establish a fund as required, instead spending all of it, totaling nearly 500 million VND.

Furthermore, Thao also took construction materials from the store without permission for personal use. In addition, when entrusted by Ms. P. to withdraw cash from the store, Thao embezzled the money.

Investigators determined that the total amount of money Dao Thi Thao embezzled from the building materials store was over 738 million VND.

At the trial, the defendant admitted to the crimes as charged in the indictment. The defendant confessed that, taking advantage of the shop owner's lack of supervision, he had stolen money. He used the stolen money to gamble online.

After the incident came to light, the defendant, out of fear, fled to the South. Some time later, the defendant returned to his hometown and confessed to the crime to the police.

Before the trial, the defendant persuaded his family to repay the entire amount of money he had embezzled from the store.

The panel of judges noted that in this case, the defendant had an aggravating circumstance: committing the crime two or more times. However, several mitigating circumstances should also be considered, such as remorse, the defendant's family's efforts to fully compensate the victim, the defendant's father-in-law's participation in the resistance, and the fact that the defendant is currently raising a young child.

After considering all aspects of the case, the panel of judges sentenced Dao Thi Thao to 7 years in prison for the crime of abusing trust to misappropriate property.