Sentenced to Eight Months in Prison with a Two-Year Suspended Sentence
A man in his 40s who staged a fake taxi theft to steal over 100 million won from a friend's travel bag has been found guilty.
On August 5, the Ulsan District Court Criminal Division 3 (Presiding Judge Lee Jaewook) announced that it had sentenced Mr. A, who was tried on charges of special theft, to eight months in prison with a two-year suspended sentence.
In January 2018, Mr. A conspired with his acquaintance, Mr. B, to lure Mr. C, a friend of Mr. B living in Korea, to the Philippines with the intention of extorting money from him.
The two contacted Mr. C and enticed him by saying, "If you do 'Hwanchigi' in the Philippines, you can make about 3 to 4 million won with 100 million won. Bring 100,000 euros."
Deceived by this, Mr. C put 100,000 euros (129 million won at the exchange rate at the time) into his travel bag and arrived at a Philippine airport late at night.
Mr. A and his accomplices first took Mr. C to a restaurant near the airport for a meal, then hailed a taxi waiting in front to move to their accommodation.
Without any suspicion, Mr. C loaded his travel bag containing 100,000 euros into the taxi trunk, but at that moment, the taxi sped away and fled the scene.
This taxi had been prepared in advance by Mr. A to steal Mr. C's money, and another acquaintance was disguised as the taxi driver, waiting at the scene.
Mr. C was only able to understand the full circumstances of the incident long after reporting the theft. Eventually, Mr. A voluntarily turned himself in to the authorities.
The court stated, "In determining the sentence, we considered that the defendant has admitted his wrongdoing, has no previous convictions, and has reached a settlement with the victim, who does not wish to pursue punishment."
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