Qingpu district prosecutors have issued indictments in four cases involving suspects who had escaped punishment by taking advantage of allowances in the law for children and pregnant women, local media reported Sunday.
In one case, three adults used a 10-year-old girl to steal money from a clothing shop in Huinan county in Pudong New Area on December 31, 2011, according to a report in the Shanghai Evening Post. Two of the adults distracted the shop assistant while the girl grabbed 2,400 yuan ($391) from the cash register.
The girl was an experienced thief. Whenever she got caught, one of the adults would claim to be her father and beg to excuse the girl's behavior, usually by saying she was just a child and didn't know what she was doing. According to China's Criminal Law, children under 14 years old are not punished for criminal acts.
In another case, a parent employed her own child to steal. The mother, Chen Lanlan, 28, came to Shanghai in March with her 5-year-old daughter, but was unable to find a job. On April 7, she spotted a bag containing 25,000 yuan in cash and 17,350 yuan worth of mobile phone recharge cards at a shop in Qingpu district and told her daughter to steal it. Chen later said that she knew no one would punish such a young girl if she got caught.
This time, however, the bag's owner caught the girl and called the police.
The suspects in the cases, as well as a third, came from the same county in Hunan Province, said Zhou Feng, a press officer for the Qingpu District Prosecutor's Office.
Chinese law also makes allowances for pregnant women. In less serious theft cases, pregnant offenders usually will not have to serve time in prison, said Wu Ji, a lawyer for the Shanghai Hengye Law Firm.
One of the suspects in the fourth case, Qian Hong, committed 25 thefts with an accomplice from 2006 to 2012, usually when one of them was pregnant, prosecutors said. Qian has two sons and a daughter.
Qian got caught on February 11, when she and her accomplice, surnamed Yang, attempted to steal electric bicycles. Although she should have been detained for 15 days, Qian escaped without punishment because she was pregnant.
The pair had stolen a total of eight bicycles on four past occasions, always when one of them was pregnant. On March 4, she was caught again trying to steal an electric bicycle while holding her 10-month-old daughter.
Under China's Criminal Law, thieves can face longer prison sentences if they involve children in the crime.
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