Vietnam Jails Russian Fraudsters For ATM Theft

Umer Jamshaid Published September 01, 2016 | 12:35 PM

HANOI, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News -1st Sep,2016) - Three Russian fraudsters, including one who tried to escape prison using a spoon and a toothbrush to dig a tunnel, have been jailed in Vietnam for using fake ATM cards to steal $13,400. The men, aged between 30 and 43, were detained last October pending trial when one of them made a last-ditch attempt to flee. "He was discovered by the jailor while trying to dig a hole from the room," using a toothbrush and a spoon, according to an online report from Ho Chi Minh City's official law newspaper. The men were each jailed for six years for making fake bank cards and stealing from cash machines in southern Ho Chi Minh City and Khanh Hoa province.

The would-be escapee was given an extra six months for the attempted jail break. The men confessed to their crime and were sentenced Wednesday in Khanh Hoa after a one-day trial, a court clerk told AFP, without providing further details. According to the legal newspaper, the trio arrived in Vietnam in mid-October and were arrested later that month while they were withdrawing money from an ATM in Khanh Hoa.