Five people have been sentenced to jail terms ranging from 10 to 26 months for stealing state-owned diesel, according to a ruling by the Taichung District Court.
The court said a man surnamed Chen (陳), Chen’s sister and her boyfriend, as well as another man identified as Tu and Tu’s friend, also named Chen, were found guilty of the aggravated theft of 2,000 liters of diesel from CPC Corp, Taiwan.
The case first came to light in September 2022, when CPC reported to police abnormal fluctuations in a damaged oil pipeline in the Cingshui District (清水), the ruling said.
Photo: Huang Mei-chu, Taipei Times
After examining surveillance footage, police found a nearby metal structure with a corrugated steel roof that the five used to siphon off oil from multiple pipelines, in a scheme they copied from the South Korean movie Pipeline.
The group made a failed attempt to access a pipeline belonging to Formosa Petrochemical Corp in Changhua from January to February 2022 before their later successful attempt in Taichung, the court said.
Apart from Tu, who reached a settlement by paying NT$250,000 (US$7,670) to CPC, the court ordered the other four to pay the company a total of NT$1.01 million.
CPC has also brought a civil case against the five, seeking NT$1.26 million in compensation for the diesel stolen, pipeline damage and repair work.
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