Wen Lu

In recent years, it is not uncommon for prepaid consumer operators such as fitness clubs, beauty salons, and interest training classes to run away with money, and many of them are "professional shopkeepers" behind them. Recently, the Yinzhou District People's Court of Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province, ruled that a number of "professional store closures" constituted the crime of fraud in a case of a prepaid consumer business running away with money.

2023年2月，錢某和李某共同出資，接手寧波市海曙區一攝影店。隨後，錢某、李某夥同鄭某等人在攝影店不具備經營條件的情況下，以門店開展周年慶活動回饋客戶為名，向客戶謊稱充值排名靠前即可獲取高額獎品，虛假承諾待活動結束後會將充值款返還，誘使客戶進行現金充值。后又召集客戶在酒店假意舉辦頒獎儀式，以現場充值刷排名的方式，營造緊張氛圍，不斷刺激客戶再次充值。活動結束後，錢某、李某、鄭某等人連夜跑路，關店失聯。其間，共騙取被害人146萬余元。

After trial, the Yinzhou District People's Court held that the defendants Qian, Li, Zheng and others took over the poorly managed store, and when they did not have the operating conditions at all, they used the recharge to win the grand prize as a bait to deceive customers to recharge, and then closed the store and lost contact, subjectively had the purpose of illegal possession, and objectively carried out the act of fabricating facts and concealing the truth, causing the victims to have a wrong understanding and defraud money, and the amount was particularly huge, constituting the crime of fraud, and it was a joint crime.

法院根據各被告人的犯罪事實、情節以及對於社會的危害程度，對被告人錢某、李某、鄭某以詐騙罪判處有期徒刑十年三個月至十年不等，並處罰金；其餘被告人均以詐騙罪判處有期徒刑，部分被告人適用緩刑，並處罰金。

After the verdict was announced, Qian and the other five defendants were dissatisfied and appealed. The Ningbo Intermediate People's Court ruled to reject the appeal and uphold the original judgment.

The judge said

This case is a typical case of a "professional shopkeeper" who took over a poorly managed store and ran away through prepaid consumption. Defendant Qian X was responsible for identifying suitable stores in various places that he intended to transfer, and completing preliminary work such as signing a transfer agreement with the store owner, paying part of the transfer fee, and registering. Defendants Li and Zheng led the team into the store, and arranged for personnel to be responsible for contacting the original store members by phone as store business personnel, introducing the anniversary recharge to win prizes, and discussing the details of the recharge with customers. The victim was tricked by the team into the misconception that he could get a high amount of gifts and recover the recharge money or enjoy the equivalent value of photography services, so he continued to recharge and suffered property losses. The defendants formed a professional and professional operation team with a clear division of labor and cooperation, which is a typical "professional shopkeeper".

The behavior of "professional store closures" to close stores with money leads to the non-refundable of consumers' prepaid fees, which seriously disrupts the normal market economic order, impacts the social credit system, causes economic losses to consumers, and squeezes the living space of other honest business enterprises.

The judge reminded consumers to keep their eyes open, consume based on factors such as the length of operation, business strength, and consumption evaluation, and cautiously participate in large-amount recharge activities to effectively prevent consumption risks. At the same time, the people's courts, market supervision departments, consumer associations and other relevant units should work together to purify the consumption environment, so that market entities can compete fairly, orderly and benignly, and consumers can consume with peace of mind, peace of mind and comfort.

Source: People's Court Daily