The High Court’s Taichung branch has sentenced a woman to three months in jail for forgery and violating personal privacy laws by taking photos to report more than 200 parking violations by using her neighbor’s contact information.
The 50-year-old woman residing in Taichung County’s Daya District (大雅), surnamed Hong (洪), was found guilty by the court which, in addition to sentencing her to serve the three-month sentence, required her to pay NT$60,000 (US$1,854) in compensation in the civil litigation case.
The court filing on Friday quoted Hong as saying that she was irate over illegal parking clogging up alleys and street sidewalks in her neighborhood, so she took photographs to file 218 complaints at the local police precinct in a six-month period in 2021, prompting officers to issue fines to the infringing vehicle owners.
Photo: Chang Jui-chen, Taipei Times
However, Hong feared retribution from the vehicle owners, so she used the address and telephone number of her neighbor, a 58-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), as police investigators found the two women had personal disputes in past years over building of illegal structures at their residential housing.
After uncovering Hong’s actions, public prosecutors indicted her for forgery and breaches of the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法), while Chang filed a civil lawsuit demanding NT$500,000 in compensation.
Chang said she had to go to the police precinct several times for her statement, due to initial media reports that she was the “informer” who filed the parking violation complaints in 2018, saying that it was an invasion of her privacy, and she suffered from mental and physical stress, and sleep disorder symptoms from the police questionings and having to prove her innocence.
In the court filing, Chang said she needed treatment by doctors and medication for the resulting mental health issues and ailments.
In her litigation, she sought NT$500,000 in damages from Hong, for combined medication and treatment expenses, as well as personal damages unrelated to property assets, and compensation for damaging her reputation and her privacy.
At the court hearing Hong said that she entered her own name and ID card number, adding that she was using publicly available information when she entered the phone number and address, as Chang owns a traditional medicine store and listed its address and contact number on store advertisements.
Hong also demanded proof of medical expenses from Chang for her mental and physical ailments, as directly linked to police questioning and other issues pertaining to the case.
After being acquitted in the court of first instance, the appeal to the High Court found Hong guilty and imposed the three-month sentence, while judges in the civil litigation ordered her to pay NT$60,000 in financial compensation, an amount lower than NT$505,810 Chang demanded.
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