Chinese woman stole luxury goods worth over Rs 1.21 crore from best friend's house, jailed

The Chinese woman has been sentenced to 12 years in jail for theft. (Representative image)

A Chinese woman stole luxury goods worth 1 million yuan (over Rs 1.21 crore) from her best friend’s house and replaced them with dupes has been jailed for 12 years.

The woman, surnamed Liu, had a key to her friend’s house, surnamed Cao, from where she stole goods worth 940,000 yuan in a span of three years. It all started Cao bought a new house in Changchun and since she was away most of the time, she handed a key to Liu to oversee renovations.

Liu was apparently experiencing financial difficulties in 2019 and around that time stole 20 luxury items from Cao’s new house, including Hermes and Louis Vuitton handbags, Bulgari bracelets and various branded clothes.

Then she bought dupes online and replaced the luxury goods with them.

Cao then somehow discovered the theft and reported it to the police. While she refused to believe that her friend was a suspect, police told Cao that her friend may have been misleading the investigation as well.

Police said that they had identified the suspect and were about to make an arrest, prosecutors said.

Investigators did not tell Cao that the suspect was her friend and she shared the “good news” with Liu. Then Liu confessed to Cao and begged for her forgiveness. In 2022, Liu was sentenced to 12 years in jail.

According to Chinese criminal law, a theft exceeding 3,00,000 yuan is punishable by more than 10 years’ imprisonment. As Liu misled the investigation, she got a prolonged sentence.