Stealing 2 pots of mutant orchids was sentenced to 7 years in prison: How is the valuation of the new evidence satisfactory?

On April 12, the People’s Court of Dong Nai province opened a first-instance trial and sentenced defendant Nguyen Phi Long (31 years old, from Don Duong district, Lam Dong) to 7 years in prison for “theft of property”. The exhibits are 2 pots of mutant orchids with 5 white petals, valued at 750 million VND at the time of theft.

Defendant Nguyen Phi Long at the trial. (Photo: Youth Newspaper)

Talk to PV Infonet Regarding the above case, lawyer Le Hang, law firm TATlawFirm said: “The determination of prices in criminal proceedings for objects and properties with special features, such as pets, ornamental creatures, According to the provisions of Clause 1, Article 217 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC), 2015 stipulates on conducting property valuation as follows: “The asset valuation is conducted by the Property Valuation Council. The asset valuation meeting may be held at the place where the property is valued or at another place under the decision of the Property Valuation Council.

In order to determine the value of damaged assets, Decree No. 30/2018 stipulates that the valuation must be consistent with the market price of the property to be valued, or the property is similar to the asset to be valued at the time of valuation. the point and where the property is requested to be valued. One of the bases for valuing an asset is the market price of the asset, which can be determined according to the wholesale or retail price of the same or similar property.

“The general rule is that, however, for some properties that are pets and ornamental plants, the valuation has not been carried out strictly according to the above regulations, but largely based on the subjective perception of agencies and people. conduct proceedings to apply in practice.

For example: In cases of appropriation of property, pets are considered pets worth hundreds of millions of dong. However, the Valuation Council only determines the property value according to the food price with the price of pork and beef. Similarly, orchids are only valued like ordinary ornamental plants, because the “black market” price of this flower is extremely vague, chaotic, and without any legal basis. price determination of this species”, lawyer Le Hang stated and analyzed.

“As such, it can be seen that currently, the authorities are at a standstill and confused in handling the theft of pets and houseplants. Specifically, it is entangled in determining the material value of livestock and ornamental plants.

From a management perspective, the State currently does not set prices for livestock and ornamental plants. The Ministry of Finance and the Price Management Department have not yet issued any guidance or mechanism on valuation to apply to these cases.

Therefore, when dealing with incidents related to the theft of pets and indoor plants, it is inevitable that “concerns”. To determine the extent of the subject’s behavior under criminal or administrative responsibility, what price should we apply?

Because the above problems have not been resolved, it is thought that when investigating, prosecuting and adjudicating, it is necessary to ensure the principle that is beneficial to the accused when adjudicating criminal cases. It is not possible to determine the value in a vague way to prosecute the suspects for criminal responsibility, “said lawyer Le Hang.

In fact, the price of mutant orchids has been inflated to virtual and unrealistic prices for the purpose of hitting greed, from the price of many tens of millions of dong/cm, even hundreds of millions per sprout (kie) now the price is down to only several thousand dong/cm, cheaper than industrial orchids.

According to the indictment of the case, because he knew that his orchid garden D.TH (36 years old, living in Long Khanh City) had 2 pots of high-value white 5-petal mutant orchids, Long arose the intention to steal.
On the evening of June 30, 2020, Long rented a car from Mr. N.Đ.K (39 years old, living in the same district) and then ran from Lam Dong to Mr. D.TH’s house to steal the two pots of orchids mentioned above.
Arriving, Long parked the car about 50m from the victim’s house and then walked to the scene, then climbed through the gate to go inside, taking away 2 pots of 5 white 5-petal mutant orchids.
After stealing the orchid, Long cut it into many small pieces (ki) and brought it to Mr. N.D.K.’s house. The defendant told Mr. N.Đ.K that this lan number was given by someone else and asked for it to be sent.
After receiving the victim’s news, the Long Khanh City Police investigated and quickly determined that Nguyen Phi Long was the culprit who stole the two pots of mutant orchids mentioned above. On July 5, 2020, Long Khanh City Police prosecuted and arrested Long.

Yen River