Claimed No Intent to Steal... Appeal Dismissed
A man in his 60s who left a mart without paying for a bundle of three packs of somyeon noodles worth 8,000 won was fined 500,000 won, more than 50 times the price of the noodles. Although he claimed he had no intention to steal, the courts in both the first and second trials found him guilty.
According to the legal community on the 12th, the 4th Criminal Division of the Daejeon District Court (Chief Judge Gu Chang-mo) recently dismissed the appeal of Mr. A, a man in his 60s, who claimed he had no intent to steal in a theft case, and upheld the first trial’s sentence of 500,000 won.
Mr. A was indicted for allegedly placing three packs of old-fashioned somyeon noodles worth 8,550 won into a pre-prepared shopping basket without paying at a mart in Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, on the evening of August 20, 2022.
At the time, Mr. A was shopping with his mother and placed other items in the mart’s provided shopping basket, but put the somyeon noodles into his personal shopping basket. He claimed that he only missed paying for the noodles while helping his elderly mother with the checkout and did not steal intentionally, but the court did not accept this argument.
The first trial court explained, "Instead of placing the somyeon noodles in the mart’s basket, he put them in his personal basket, and considering the weight of about 900g of noodles, he must have known the noodles were in the basket when carrying it, yet he did not place them on the checkout counter. Also, when placing other paid items into the personal basket, he would have been able to see the noodles. Taking all these points together, we have no choice but to recognize the fact of theft of the noodles."
The appellate court stated, "The first trial’s judgment is sufficiently reasonable, and no illegality such as factual misrecognition or legal error as claimed by the defendant was found," thus dismissing the appeal.
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