The Changhua County District Court on Friday sentenced a man surnamed Ma (馬) to prison for failing to deliver egg yolk pastries that were purchased through the Internet — the first such sentencing in Taiwan.
Ma offered his client, surnamed Chen (陳), to deliver eight boxes of egg yolk pastries from a Changhua County bakery before the Mid-Autumn Festival last year, after receiving NT$3,800 from Chen, according to the ruling.
Chen wired the money to Ma, but Ma only delivered three boxes worth NT$1,800, the court said.
Photo: Taipei Times
Chen then took Ma to court.
Ma’s act of cheating others over the Internet was reprehensible, the court said, as it added that it also factored in that the defendant was cooperative before ruling him guilty of contravening Paragraph 4, Article 339 of the Criminal Code.
The defendant had also failed to take the chance to reduce the severity of the sentence by reimbursing the plaintiff NT$2,000, lawyer Cheng Chih-wen (鄭智文) said.
The ruling was rare for such a crime, as similar disputes usually only saw the defendant detained for a few days, Cheng said.
The ruling could be the court’s attempt to curb similar acts, which is a prevalent issue due to the bakery’s limitations on sales, he said.
The bakery charges NT$50 per pastry and only accepts purchases in person, while every person can only buy 60 pastries at a time. The limitations have resulted in long lines in front of the store — sometimes up to 500m in length — before Mid-Autumn Festivals.
Some online purchasing groups offer to stand in line and buy pastries for others, with such services charging NT$160 for every pastry.
Judges based their ruling of scam cases not on the amount of funds involved, but rather on how it was conducted, Cheng said.
The use of messaging platforms such as Line or Facebook in consumer disputes would be considered “Internet fraud,” the minimum sentence of which is one year of prison, Cheng said.
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