Supreme Court: Sending Photos of Resident Registration Cards in Another Person's Name Is Not Illegal Use

The Supreme Court has ruled that sending a photo of another person's resident registration card via mobile phone text message cannot be punished as fraudulent use of the resident registration card.

The Supreme Court's 3rd Division (Presiding Justice No Jeong-hee) announced on the 14th that it upheld the lower court's ruling of not guilty on charges of violating the Resident Registration Act in the final appeal of Mr. A, who was indicted on charges including aggravated robbery.

Mr. A took advantage of the fact that foreign female sex workers could not report crimes even if they were victims, and while communicating with the business owner, sent photos of resident registration cards in another person's name. Subsequently, Mr. A was prosecuted for threatening Mr. B, a Thai national, with a stun gun at an officetel-type sex work establishment, binding his hands and feet with cable ties, and stealing property worth approximately 4.58 million won.

Both the first and second trials recognized Mr. A's guilt on the charge of aggravated robbery and sentenced him to 3 years and 6 months in prison, but acquitted him on the charge of violating the Resident Registration Act. The act of transmitting and showing an image file of the resident registration card taken by photographing it on a mobile phone cannot be considered an exercise of the resident registration card in its specified usage.

The Supreme Court also stated, "Based on the submitted evidence alone, it is insufficient to conclude that the defendant exercised the resident registration card itself (the original) in another person's name in any form during the identity verification process," and "the use of only an image file does not constitute the crime of fraudulent use of the resident registration card," affirming the second trial's judgment as correct.

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