Two district courts issued opposing verdicts over ticket scalping, with one dismissing a case over entrapment and the other issuing a NT$6,000 fine.
The cases in Taichung and Chiayi involved tickets to the opening game of the Asian Baseball Championship between Taiwan and South Korea at Taipei Dome on Dec. 3.
In Chiayi, a defendant surnamed Lin (林) bought four tickets to the match for NT$2,400, which he then posted for sale online at a higher price, the Chiayi District Court said in its ruling.
Photo: CNA
Police discovered the posting and negotiated to buy the tickets for NT$8,000, it said.
Plainclothes officers then arrested Lin when meeting to pick up the tickets, and pressed charges under the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法), the court said.
Lin during questioning admitted to purchasing the tickets in order to resell in contravention of Article 64 of the act, which prohibits purchasing tickets “with no intention to use and reselling them for profits,” it said, fining Lin NT$6,000 and confiscating the tickets.
However, in a similar case in Taichung, judges ruled that police impersonating a buyer online constituted entrapment.
The officers never had the intention to buy and never completed the purchase, meaning the defendant was only guilty of an attempted crime, which is not covered in the act and therefore not punishable, the Taichung District Court said in its ruling.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
EARTHQUAKE: Taipei and New Taipei City accused a construction company of ignoring the Circular MRT’s original design, causing sections to shift by up to 92cm The Taipei and New Taipei City governments yesterday said they would seek NT$1.93 billion (US$58.6 million) in compensation from the company responsible for building the Circular MRT Line, following damage sustained during an earthquake in April last year that had shuttered a section for months. BES Engineering Corp, a listed company under Core Pacific Group, was accused of ignoring the original design when constructing the MRT line, resulting in negative shear strength resistance and causing sections of the rail line between Jhonghe (中和) and Banciao (板橋) districts to shift by up to 92cm during the April 3 earthquake. The pot bearings on
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
RSS