Hsinchu woman sentenced to May for stealing inheritance from mother's seal

Hsinchu District Court appearance. (Photo by reporter Liao Xueru)

After her mother passed away, a woman named Wang from Hsinchu went to the post office to steal the seals while keeping her bankbooks and seals, without the consent of her other brothers, and successively withdrew and transferred 1.25 million yuan in deposits, of which 1 million was remitted to herself. The "Special Repayment Account of a Farmers' Association" was discovered by her brother and brought a lawsuit. The Hsinchu District Court concluded the case and sentenced the princess to 5 months in prison for the crime of forging private documents, and was fined an Yike, and confiscated more than 1.06 million yuan in criminal proceeds.

The judgment pointed out that after the Queen Mother passed away on November 29, 2023, the Queen Mother went to the post office in December of the same year without waiting for the inheritance procedures to be completed. She stole her mother's seal on the withdrawal slips and inter-bank remittance applications three times, withdrew 100,000 yuan and 150,000 yuan in cash, and transferred another 1 million yuan to the farmers' association account. It wasn't until the brother discovered that the inheritance tax declaration had been completed, but he had yet to receive the inheritance he deserved. After checking with the relevant authorities, he found out that his sister had "stolenly received it" and he was so angry that he filed a lawsuit.

Please read on...

During the court hearing, the princess confessed to the crime. She claimed that the 250,000 yuan withdrawn was used to pay for her mother’s funeral expenses, and the 1 million yuan was used to offset the care expenses she had paid previously. However, after checking the receipts, the judge found that the actual expenditure for funeral expenses was 181,300 yuan. This part was indeed used for the funeral of the deceased and was deducted in accordance with the law. As for the 1 million yuan remittance note, it was marked as "a special account for the repayment of a farmer's association", which was obviously inconsistent with his claim of "advancing care expenses on behalf of the deceased" and was not accepted.

The judge considered that due to a moment of greed, the princess used her late mother's name to receive money without the consent of all heirs, which harmed the rights and interests of the heirs and the accuracy of tax collection. Considering that he confessed to the crime but had not reached mediation with his family, he was eventually sentenced to five months in prison (equivalent to 1,000 yuan per day), and the remaining 1.069 million yuan in criminal proceeds was confiscated in accordance with the law. The whole case is still open to appeal.