Supreme Court: "Organized Used Car Fraud Ring Should Be Considered a Criminal Group"

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] The Supreme Court has ruled that heavy sentences should be imposed on used car fraud rings that commit crimes in an organized and repetitive manner.

On the 15th, the Supreme Court's 3rd Division (Presiding Justice Kim Jae-hyung) overturned the lower court's ruling that acquitted Mr. A of charges related to criminal organization activities and fraud, and remanded the case to the Incheon District Court with a verdict of guilty on the charge of criminal organization activities.

Mr. A was on trial for posting bait vehicles on internet sites, concluding contracts, and then pushing other vehicles at high prices by claiming serious problems with the vehicles. In particular, it was investigated that from February 2017 to January 2019, Mr. A committed multiple offenses using the same method together with other members of the organization. The organization Mr. A belonged to consisted of 20 to 30 members, with roles divided among representatives, team leaders, and team members.

The prosecution regarded the organization Mr. A belonged to as a "criminal group" as defined in Article 114, Paragraph 1 of the Criminal Act and indicted him on charges of criminal organization activities. The charge of criminal organization activities applies when a group or organization is formed for the purpose of committing crimes punishable by death, life imprisonment, or imprisonment for four years or more. The statutory sentence is the "punishment prescribed for the intended crime," that is, death, life imprisonment, or imprisonment for four years or more.

However, the first and second trials found it difficult to regard Mr. A's organization as a criminal group under the Criminal Act and only recognized the fraud charges, sentencing him to three years and six months in prison. They reasoned that since the teams were not structured systematically around the representative and the representatives themselves formed separate teams, the charge of criminal organization activities could not be applied.

However, the Supreme Court's judgment was different. It pointed out that the charge of criminal organization activities should be applied based on the facts that the members shared information through a Telegram chatroom, a mobile messenger, and made various reports, and that the members received profits distributed according to predetermined criteria.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.