Female director mastermind of property theft ring at Hai Duong BOT Thermal Power Plant sentenced to 15 years in prison

Colluding with the Deputy Director of the security company

Nguyen Thi Thuy (born in 1991, residing in An Hiep commune, Quynh Phu district, Thai Binh) is the Director of Thai Son Construction Company Limited in Thai Binh province. This company carries out small-scale construction of the project at Hai Duong BOT Thermal Power Plant (Kinh Mon) under a contract. Thai Son Company uses a warehouse adjacent to the transit warehouse of China Energy Company (the operator of Hai Duong BOT Thermal Power Plant).

The Chinese Energy Company signed a security contract with Dong Hai 268 Security Service Company Limited to inspect, control people, and protect the safety of all company assets. Thuy knew that Vu Van Minh (born in 1963, residing in An Luu Ward) was the Deputy Director and Pham Van Truong (born in 1963, residing in Le Ninh Commune, both in Kinh Mon) was the Captain of the Dong Hai Company's Security Team. Thuy discussed with Minh and Truong to steal steel pipes stored at the transit warehouse of the Chinese Energy Company.

According to the discussion, Thuy was responsible for hiring others to remove, cut and transport the steel pipes for sale, Minh was responsible for directing Truong to direct the guards at the main gate to let Thuy's people and vehicles in and out of the main gate without having to check people and vehicles according to regulations. The subjects agreed not to check Thuy's people and vehicles. The 3 subjects did not agree in advance on the selling price, profit sharing ratio and payment method.

Thuy hired people to steal steel pipes from the transit warehouse in the evenings, bringing them back to hide behind the Thai Son Company's warehouse. The next morning, Thuy hired people to cut these long steel pipes into short pieces. Then, Thuy contacted the seller to bring a truck to the BOT Thermal Power Plant, hired people to load the stolen steel pipes onto a truck and transport them out of the factory through the main gate to sell at a price of 12,500-13,000 VND/kg.

Every time Thuy sent people to steal, cut, load steel pipes onto trucks, and let trucks transport the steel pipes to sell, she contacted Minh and Truong so that Truong could direct the guards at the factory's main gate.

Multiple theft of property

With the above methods and tricks, Thuy hired a number of people to steal property. On January 3, 5, and 10, 2023, this group stole a total of 4 times.16,172 m of boiler surface heat-resistant pipes, equivalent to more than 66 tons of steel, total value of more than 8.5 billion VND.

Thuy khai, alreadysold steel pipes to a person in Thanh Ha district for more than 613 million VND. Thuy gave Minh 63 million VND, Truong 135 million VND. Minh divided 6 million VND with Truong to give to some accomplices, saying it was Thuy's compensation.

On August 2, the People's Court of Hai Duong province held a first-instance trial for Nguyen Thi Thuy and 13 accomplices for theft of property. In this case, Thuy, Minh, and Truong were the initiators and benefited the most, so they played the first role. Defendant Minh is a class B war invalid with a permanent disability of 30%. Defendant Truong was previously sentenced to suspended imprisonment for gambling and extortion of citizens' property; his name was recorded for theft of property.

Based on the nature, severity, and behavior of the defendants, the Trial Panel sentenced Nguyen Thi Thuy to 15 years in prison, Vu Van Minh to 14 years and 6 months in prison, and Pham Van Truong to 14 years in prison for the same crime of theft. The other 11 subjects, all from Hai Duong, were sentenced to 8-13 years in prison for the same crime.

Regarding the buyer of Thuy's stolen property, there is currently no basis for a conclusion, so the Investigation Police Agency (Hai Duong Provincial Police) decided to separate the behavior and documents to continue investigating and clarifying.