Borrowing a Friend's Motorcycle and Pawning It for Spending Money: Is This a Crime?
Looking forward to your response!
Article 175 Criminal Code 2015 provides regulations on the crime of "Abuse of Trust to Appropriate Property" as follows:
- Any person who commits one of the following acts to appropriate property of another person valued from 4,000,000 VND to less than 50,000,000 VND, or less than 4,000,000 VND but has been administratively sanctioned for the act of appropriating property or has been convicted of this crime or one of the crimes stipulated in Articles 168, 169, 170, 171, 172, 173, 174, and 290 of this Code, without having their criminal records expunged, and continues to violate, or the property is the main means of livelihood of the victim and their family, shall be subject to non-custodial reform for up to 3 years or imprisonment from 6 months to 3 years:
a) Borrowing, leasing another person's property, or receiving another person's property through a contract form and then using fraudulent means or fleeing to appropriate that property, or failing to return the property when the term is due despite having the conditions and ability to do so but deliberately not returning it;
b) Borrowing, leasing another person's property, or receiving another person's property through a contract form and using that property for illegal purposes leading to the inability to repay the property.
In this context, determining whether your child has committed the crime of abusing trust to appropriate property requires considering many factors such as the value of the appropriated property and other behaviors. If your child pawned a borrowed vehicle for personal spending but did not flee or use it for illegal purposes, there is not enough basis to prosecute criminal liability. Here, borrowing the vehicle is a civil relationship, hence your child has the responsibility to return the property to the owner according to the agreed timeline between the parties. If not returned, the owner has the right to file a lawsuit in court to reclaim the property.
Respectfully!
