A university student who gave presentations to students at his former Changhua County junior-high school claiming to be a Ministry of Justice investigator has been sentenced to 15 days in jail, a verdict released yesterday said.
In its verdict, the Changhua District Court said the man, surnamed Huang (黃), had undermined the credibility of the Investigation Bureau by knowingly posing as one of its officers in front of students.
However, Huang’s presentations at the school were aimed at spreading law enforcement knowledge, and did not constitute a serious infringement of the bureau’s authority, the court said, adding that Huang had also been cooperative following his arrest.
Given those factors, though the court found Huang guilty under the Criminal Code for posing as a public official, it sentenced him to just 15 days in prison, commutable to a fine at a rate of NT$1,000 per day.
The verdict can be appealed.
The indictment said that Huang created a fake badge and brought it with him to meet with teachers at the junior high school he had attended on May 1, last year.
After saying he worked on the “041 investigation team” at the Investigation Bureau’s Taichung branch office, Huang was taken to a classroom to speak to students about his career and experiences as a government investigator.
Later that month, on May 24, Huang was invited back to the school to deliver slideshow presentations to 10 classes on the Investigation Bureau’s duties and salary structure, prosecutors said.
For these speeches, he not only brought his fake badge, but also a bulletproof vest he had purchased online, a police baton, BB gun, handcuffs and other props, the indictment said.
However, a teacher present at one of the lectures found Huang’s story suspicious, because of his description of his job and the fact that he was only 20 years old, and later reported him to the police and the Changhua County Education Department, which led to the court case.
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