The Da Nang People's Court, on Wednesday, sentenced Nguyen Thi Vinh, a 33-year-old resident in  My An Ward, Ngu Hanh Son District, to a combined total of 16 years in prison for ‘fraudulent appropriation of property through swindling’ and ‘forging seals and documents of agencies and organisations’.

According to an indictment, at the beginning of October 2017, Vinh borrowed VND50 million from a woman named M. residing in Hai Chau District. In mid-October 2017, through social networks, the fraudster spent VND25 million on obtaining a fake certificate of land use rights over a land plot, along with house ownership and land-attached assets named Nguyen Thi Vinh.

Upon the reception of the fake certificate of land use rights, Vinh managed to sell the above-mentioned land plot to Ms. M at a cost of VND 3 billion. Given her trust in Vinh, Ms. M. gave Vinh VND 1.2 billion in deposit and received the certificate of land use right from Vinh. The duo were scheduled to go to a local notary office for the transfer of the land use rights on October 22, 2017.

However, Vinh later told lies to Ms. M. that the deal could not be completed due to some legal problems. Being suspicious about Vinh’s acts, Ms. M. brought the above-mentioned land use right certificate to the competent authority for check and verification, and later found that it was fake.

Afterwards, Ms. M. asked Vinh to return the deposit as above mentioned, but Vinh evaded the return and then hired a group of youngsters for getting back the fake land use right certificate from Ms. M with the aim of destroying the evidence of her fraud.

Having obtained the fake certificate, Vinh continued used it to cheat other people out of money in the neighbouring Quang Nam Province. Finally, she was arrested by the province’s police for frauds.

Reporting by LE HUNG – Translating by A. THU