Chinese man gets two years for stealing on Vietnamese flight

A Hanoi court has sentenced a Chinese man to two years in jail for stealing aboard a domestic flight last year, a rare sentence for foreigners caught with the offense in Vietnam. 

Gui Xing Liang, 47, was accused of rummaging bags on a Vietnam Airlines flight from the central city of Da Nang to Hanoi in November 2016. 

Two passengers noticed the act and informed the cabin crew, who later asked the bag owner to check his belongings and found Gui had stolen some $6,200 worth of cash, according to the indictment. The Chinese man was detained at arrival. 

Vietnamese laws treat theft as a criminal offense if the object’s value exceeds VND2 million ($87). But the jail term for Gui is still a rare punishment for the offense, as most culprits are often obliged to pay a fine and then deported. 

Last November, Vietnam Airlines uncovered 14 cases of in-flight thefts committed by foreign passengers. Most of the culprits were Chinese.

In February, officials at Tan Son Nhat airport in Ho Chi Minh City detained a Chinese national for stealing around $1,000 from two Japanese passengers on a plane before takeoff.