Khanh Hoa Provincial People’s Court sentenced the former Deputy Director of Khanh Hoa Provincial Motor Vehicle Inspection Center to 15 years and 6 months in prison for two crimes of bribery and forgery in work.
On the morning of August 16, the People’s Court of Khanh Hoa province sentenced Nguyen Huu Truong, former Deputy Director of Khanh Hoa Province Motor Vehicle Inspection Center 7901S, to eight years and six months in prison for accepting bribes and seven years in prison for forgery in his work. The total sentence for this defendant is 15 years and six months in prison.
The court sentenced Nguyen Van Phieu, former Chairman of Hoa Binh Transport Cooperative (Hoa Binh Cooperative, headquartered in Nha Trang City, Khanh Hoa) to seven years in prison for accepting bribes.
The court determined that Truong was the deputy director and inspector responsible for checking whether the vehicles were modified, of sufficient quality and safety, and submitting the documents for the director to sign and approve. However, Truong took advantage of his position to receive money from vehicle owners when asked to do illegal registration documents.
Although knowing that Nguyen Van Phieu had no duty or function to renovate motor vehicles, Truong still contacted and asked him to illegally renovate the vehicle. Truong directly completed and submitted the documents to the director for approval, including forging the signatures of Phieu and an inspector so that the documents could be approved illegally.
Although he no longer had the function of modifying motor vehicles, Phieu still received money from the School to modify the vehicles to legalize the registration documents. In addition, Phieu also directly received money from the vehicle owner to modify the vehicle, signing falsely in the documents so that the vehicle was eligible for registration.
The Court determined that Truong’s criminal behavior was especially dangerous to society, causing bad public opinion and loss of public confidence in vehicle inspection activities.
Although Phieu did not have the function of converting motor vehicles, he did it regardless for the sake of profit. This posed a potential risk of insecurity and distorted the policy and function of the vehicle conversion activity. According to the court, Truong and Phieu’s criminal activities took place over a long period of time and were repeated many times.
Defendant Nguyen Huu Truong in court. Photo: XUAN HOAT
Accept bribes to illegally modify cars
The first instance verdict determined: Nguyen Van Phieu and Nguyen Huu Truong took advantage of their positions and powers to receive money from many people to legalize car renovation records so that the Khanh Hoa Motor Vehicle Inspection Center could issue certificates of technical safety and environmental protection for the renovated motor vehicles, then bring them in for appropriate inspection.
From 2019 to 2022, Truong and Phieu colluded to receive nearly 610 million VND from many people to legalize documents for 41 illegally modified motor vehicles.
To legalize the documents, Truong forged Phieu’s signature in 26 minutes of inspection of technical safety and environmental protection of renovated motor vehicles; and forged the signature of an inspector in eight minutes.
After receiving the money, Truong transferred 385 million VND to Phieu; transferred 88 million VND to the design document unit, illegally profiting 136 million VND.
Nguyen Van Phieu also directly received nearly 389 million VND from a number of people to legalize documents for 28 illegally modified vehicles. After paying the fees, Phieu illegally profited a total of nearly 695 million VND.