Taipei - A Taiwan teacher, who applied for a funeral subsidy
for his mother before she died, has been sentenced to seven years and
two months in prison on embezzlement charges, a newspaper said
Tuesday.
Lin Min-shun, a teacher at the Sanhsian Primary School in Taipei
County, applied for a funeral subsidy for his mother on June 17,
1998, saying his mother was dying, when she was actually critical
ill, the Liberty Times reported.
He received the subsidy of 208,500 Taiwan dollars (6,300 US
dollars), but his mother did not die until August 2.
In Taiwan, a civil servant receives a funeral subsidy equivalent
to five months' salary, when his or her parent or spouse has died.
After Lin received the funeral subsidy, he lent it to the school
accountant Wei Li-hua, who had approved the funeral subsidy for Lin
without checking his mother's death certificate.
Lin later sued Wei when she did not pay back the money on time.
Lin also accused Wei of enticing him to apply for the funeral subsidy
for his mother, so that Wei could borrow the money.
Wei denied encouraging Lin to apply for the funeral subsidy but
confessed to violating rules in approving it, the Liberty Times said.
The court case dragged on for several years. On Monday, the
Panchiao District Count sentenced Wei to seven years imprisonment for
fraud for violating rules in approving the funeral subsidy, and
sentenced Lin to seven years and two months on embezzlement charges
for applying for funeral subsidy before his mother had died.
The judge said that it was unlikely that Lin applied for funeral
subsidy for his mother because Wei asked him to do so, because
Taiwanese believe that saying one's parent is dead before the parent
has died brings back luck to the family.
USA
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