He persuaded his friend to steal electrical cables from the unit.

On September 24th, the People's Court of Tan Ky District tried the criminal case against Hoang Nghia Thang (born in 1986), residing in Hamlet 7A, Hung Long Commune, Hung Nguyen District; Nguyen Van Trung (born in 1987); and Le Dinh Cuong (born in 1989), both residing in Ky Tan Commune, Tan Ky District.

The three defendants at the trial. Photo: Nguyen Tran

According to the indictment, at approximately 1:30 AM on June 16, 2018, Thang invited Trung to steal electrical cables from the Tan Ky District Power Company. Upon reaching the intermediate transformer station in Block 3, Tan Ky town, they climbed over the fence and broke into the station, stealing a 12 kg 35KV mobile grounding wire set. They then sold it to Mr. Duong Duc Quy at a scrap metal collection point for 800,000 VND, which they then divided among themselves.

Next,At approximately 0:30 AM on June 17, 2018, Thang invited Trung and Cuong to break into room number 01 of the Tan Ky District Power Company's materials warehouse to steal a roll of 2*16mm2 cross-section electrical cable weighing 45 kg and take it outside.

At approximately 6:30 AM on the same day, Nguyen Van Trung took the stolen roll of electrical cable to a scrap metal buyer and sold it to Mr. Quy for 3,600,000 VND. Mr. Quy had already sold the grounding wire and the roll of electrical cable to an unknown scrap metal buyer, so they have not been recovered to this day.

Also on that same day, at around 8 PM, Thang went to the Tan Ky District Power Company's materials warehouse and stole a roll of electrical cable with a cross-section of 3*50+1*35mm2, 12 meters long, and weighing 22 kg, to sell. At around 1:30 AM on June 18, 2018, all three men climbed over the fence and broke into the Tan Ky District Power Company's warehouse area, stealing another roll of electrical cable. They sold this roll to Ms. Nguyen Thi Oanh for 1,952,000 VND and immediately divided the money among themselves.

On June 19, 2018, realizing that his actions were illegal, Hoang Nghia Thang surrendered to the Tan Ky District Police. Thang compensated the Tan Ky District Electricity Company with 8.7 million VND for the damages.Cuong has already paid 2,050,000 VND in compensation. The Tan Ky District Electricity Authority is also demanding that the defendants continue to pay 7,109,600 VND in damages.

Furthermore, at the investigative agency, Thang also confessed that on June 10, 2018, he and Trung stole a roll of electrical cable with a cross-section of 2*16mm2, weighing 18 kg, and sold it for 1,700,000 VND. This roll of electrical cable has not been recovered to date.

At the end of the trial, the panel of judges sentenced Thang to 16 months in prison, Trung to 14 months in prison, and Cuong to 9 months in prison.

Nguyen Tran