The Da Nang People's Court on Monday opened a first-instance trial and sentenced Nguyen Thi Thinh, 34, from My An Ward, Ngu Hanh Son District to 16 years in prison for the embezzlement of property.

Defendant Nguyen Thi Thinh is seen at court, January 10, 2022. Photo: L.H.

According to the defendant's confession, due to her negligence while working at an electronics store on Ton Duc Thang Street, Lien Chieu District, Thinh was tricked by customers into buying three iPhones worth about VND90 million without payment.

To pay the debt to the store, by taking advantage of some loopholes in the import and export regulations, Thinh used the store manager's right to log into the information technology system so as to allocate smart phones back and forth between the warehouses.

Thinh told lies that the devices needed warranty whilst others were faulty so that she could make illegal replacements.

In 2018 and 2019, Thinh illegally took 10 phones from the store for re-sale to make hefty profits. She  used the money to pay back a part of the amount which had been cheated by the customer.

In March 2019, Thinh was promoted to the head of an electronics supermarket on Dien Bien Phu Street, Thanh Khe District. The fraudster used colleague's accounts to “legalise” a shortage of samrt phones.

In total, Thinh embezzled 43 phones of the whole electronics supermarket system with a total value of more than VND1 billion. Thinh sold half of these illegally appropriated phones right at phone stores whilst the rest were sold via Facebook.

Thinh's family has paid a total of nearly VND250 million worth of compensation.

Reporting by LE HUNG – Translating by A. THU