Swindler's boasts land him in jail

By Xu Fang  |   2008-7-11  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

A MAN who posed as a senior police officer was jailed for 11 years yesterday for swindling 645,000 yuan (US$94,023) from nine victims.

Wang Chenghong, 52, invented a number of grandiose identities for himself and his relatives. He boasted he had influence to get young people into the police force if they paid 100,000 yuan, the Pudong New Area People's Court was told.

The swindler claimed he was a bureau director in the 803 police team and had involvement in the 1979 China-Vietnam War.

He claimed his father had played a big role in the Liberation War (1945-1949) and that his uncle had been a commander of an army in the Shenyang military area.

He said his wife was director of the East China Intelligence Bureau and that his brother-in-law was deputy director of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau.

In the eyes of the victims, Wang was a kindhearted person willing to help their children. Wang said he could recommend young people to study in the Huai'an Cannon School in Jiangsu Province and the students could work as police or prosecutors after graduation.

Wang assured the victims that he had many friends in the public security bureau. But he said fees were needed to ask for the help of these friends. "Anybody who wants to be a policeman can realize his dream easily as long as he pays 100,000 yuan to 150,000 yuan," Wang told the victims.

From 2004 to 2006, Wang cheated 645,000 yuan from nine people.

In 2006, a victim surnamed Shen found his son couldn't become a policeman after three years' study. He reported the matter to the police.

A teacher surnamed Liang of the Huai'an school said Wang was the father of a student at the school and had introduced some students.

But the school didn't impose any extra charges, he said.