A Taoyuan man was on Friday sentenced to 10 months in prison for document forgery and defrauding his parents, by making them believe that he was studying at top-ranking universities at home and abroad.
The parents of the 35-year-old man surnamed Kuo (郭) argued in court that he stole NT$10 million (US$352,883) from them by posing as a student for many years, Taoyuan District Court filing showed.
Kuo was found guilty of forging a National Taiwan University (NTU) student card and defrauding his parents of more than NT$165,000, the filing showed.
Kou can appeal the ruling, which can be commuted to a fine, the court said.
Taoyuan prosecutors found that he enrolled in a private technology college in 2004.
In 2007, Kuo told his parents that he was pursuing a master’s and later a doctoral degree at NTU, prosecutors said.
In 2009, he also told them that was pursuing courses at universities in the US and Canada, they added.
Prosecutors cited his parents as saying that they from 2007 to 2013 gave Kuo about NT$10 million for tuition, living expenses and research purposes, while he told them that he was a top student.
His parents also attended a graduation ceremony at NTU, believing that their son had received a degree from the university, prosecutors said.
His parents in 2017 found out that he had never been enrolled at NTU, and that the diplomas and work certificates he showed them were fraudulent, they said.
Kuo in court said that he had forged a student card to show to his parents, but that the money he took from them was not stolen, because he had been working at a temple run by his parents without pay since childhood, the filing showed.
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