Swindler paid with dud cheques

By Angela Xu  |   2008-6-4  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

AN ANHUI Province man was jailed for 14 years yesterday for buying more than 1 million yuan (US$142,857) worth of property from nine companies using dud cheques.

The Xuhui District People's Court also fined him 100,000 yuan. The man, Ying Mingwu, 28, registered Shanghai Leiheng Electronic Science Development Co Ltd in the city in 2004 in the name of a man surnamed Zou.

Zou, who is now dead, never joined in any of the company's business operations. Rather, the company served as a tool for Ying's scam, the court judges said.

On March 8, 2005, Ying bought computers, hard disks, servers and displays valued at more than 500,000 yuan from three companies. He paid with dud cheques signed by the Leiheng company.

He then cheated six other companies in the same way over seven days and subsequently disappeared.

The court found that Ying had defrauded 1.03 million yuan worth of computers and accessories from nine victims.

Ying was caught in Beijing in March 2007.