In trouble with the law for stealing his own car

Reckless car thief detained

Nam Tu Liem District Police, Hanoi City has just initiated a case and prosecuted Nguyen Van Binh (born in 1979, residing in Chi Linh City, Hai Duong) to investigate the crime of property theft.

Previously, Binh bought a car for 80 million VND but had no papers. When Binh parked the car illegally on Nguyen Hoang Street, Nam Tu Liem District, the traffic police made a record of the violation and took the car to the temporary detention lot at 3 Le Quang Dao, Hanoi.

Then, Binh dared to ask an employee of a nearby auto repair garage to sneak into the parking lot and take the car back. Discovering that the car was missing, the parking lot employee went to report it to the police.

Similarly, Tran Minh Thanh (born in 1984) and Nguyen Ngoc Bau (born in 1986), both residing in Huong Canh town, Binh Xuyen, Vinh Phuc, were also prosecuted for theft of property. Previously, Thanh was driving a Mazda car on the road when the Binh Xuyen District Police task force checked his alcohol concentration. Thanh was determined to have violated the level of 1.133 mg/liter of breath, so his car was temporarily impounded.

After that, Thanh invited Bau to the car impoundment house, took advantage of the security guard's negligence and took the car away to hide. It is known that the value of the car is about 250 million VND.

In another case from the end of 2023, the Traffic Police - Order Team, Vung Tau City Police (Ba Ria - Vung Tau province) handed over the evidence, a motorbike, and the suspect NVAT (16 years old, residing in Quang Binh) to Vung Tau City Police to investigate the theft.

The reason was because T. sneaked into the Vung Tau City Police Headquarters and took his motorbike which was temporarily impounded there. However, his actions were quickly discovered and T. was arrested shortly after.

Vung Tau City Police said that nearly a month ago, T. committed a traffic violation for the first time and was fined VND950,000. After that, T. committed a traffic violation for the second time with the violations of arbitrarily changing the characteristics of the vehicle, not installing rearview mirrors, and not obeying traffic police's orders to stop the vehicle. Because he had committed the first violation and knew the area where the vehicle was temporarily held, T. sneaked in to steal the vehicle and evaded paying the fine.

Don't make the mistake of paying the price.

Lawyer Quach Thanh Luc, Director of Phap Tri Law Firm (Hanoi Bar Association) said that when a driver violates traffic laws, the traffic police will make a temporary record of the vehicle and this is an administrative procedure. When temporarily seizing property, the authorities will rent a parking lot and proceed to keep the vehicle.

During the process of carrying out administrative procedures and executing contracts, the vehicle is under the management of the vehicle storage unit. Therefore, the act of secretly taking this vehicle from the temporary storage place constitutes the crime of property theft.

According to the lawyer, in this case, the victim is the person managing the property, not the owner of the property. Because the property manager is responsible for preserving it and if damage is caused, must compensate the owner.

"People should not mistake themselves as the vehicle owner, who owns the vehicle on paper, for being able to take a vehicle that has been impounded for traffic violations," the lawyer said.

Therefore, according to lawyers, the authorities' prosecution of the case and the defendant in these cases is completely correct and in accordance with the law.

A traffic police officer from Hanoi City Police recommends that violators should strictly comply with regulations on temporary detention of vehicles.

When detained, the vehicle will be taken to a warehouse or yard for storage and management by the authorities. To retrieve the vehicle, the violator must go to the relevant authorities to complete the procedure to pay the fine when the vehicle detention period expires.

This traffic police officer also said that recently, there have been many cases of people sneaking into parking lots to steal their own cars. Afterwards, those involved were prosecuted and arrested.

"Through the above incidents, people need to raise their legal awareness to avoid getting into trouble with the law," the officer advised.