Man gets jail time for stealing winning lottery receipts

Taipei, April 4 (CNA) The Keelung District Court has sentenced a man to 20 months in prison for stealing winning receipts in the uniform invoice lottery from a nonprofit foundation over a two-year span from 2018 to 2020.

The individual, identified by his last name Chen (陳), was found guilty of embezzlement under the Criminal Code, according to a court document released on March 27.

Chen's offense was carried out from July 2018 to July 2020, when he was working as a volunteer for the Keelung branch of the Genesis Social Welfare Foundation, the court said.

His responsibilities had been to sort and organize the donated uniform invoice receipts and then verify them for any winning lottery numbers, the court said.

During his time there, he stole more than 4,000 winning receipts and claimed roughly NT$1.01 million (US$30,685) in prize money.

According to the court, Chen was fully aware that the foundation uses the money won from the winning receipts for various charitable and social causes, but he still went ahead and stole them without a conscience.

His unscrupulous conduct only came to light when the National Taxation Bureau of the Northern Area noticed in 2020 that there was something irregular going on with Chen claiming large numbers of receipts and notified the foundation, the court said.

The foundation then brought the matter to local authorities, according to the court.

Chen exploited the goodwill of the public, who donated their uniform invoices for charitable causes, the court said.

His actions were deemed highly unacceptable and was therefore given a prison sentence, it said, but it noted that the case can be appealed.