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July 13, 2012

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Leniency asked over scam that kept wife alive

PROSECUTORS and netizens are asking for leniency for a man accused of evading 170,000 yuan (US$26,673) in medical bills after he spent all his savings on his wife's dialysis in Beijing.

Dongcheng District People's Court heard that the suspect, surnamed Liao, evaded dialysis fees of nearly 170,000 yuan from the end of 2007 to September 2011 by creating 49 fake bills from Beijing Hospital that he used to falsely indicate he had paid for the treatment. He even used a fake stamp to make them look official.

His wife, surnamed Du, was diagnosed with kidney failure five years ago and needed dialysis twice a week at a cost of 420 yuan for each treatment.

Liao was laid off from a factory 15 years ago and he has been surviving by operating a motorcycle taxi. After his relatives and friends refused to keep lending money to him, he said he felt like he had no alternative but to evade the fees by using the fake stamp.

Papers can be validated by an official stamp in China and creating a fake version of an official seal is illegal.

The prosecutors, however, asked the judge to take Liao's sincere attitude of remorse.

Liao confessed to his crime and said in court he would sell his house to repay all the fees to the hospital.

The court didn't make a decision on the case, according to Beijing Times.

Beijing Hospital found no record of payment for Du's dialysis in its database since 2008 during a thorough check last year - she had received the free treatment for nearly four years. They called police and demanded that Liao and Du to repay the fees.

Liao lives in a poor, 50-square-meter house with his wife and son. Liao had tuberculosis and diabetes, but he never went to hospital because he wanted to save money for his wife's treatment.

"I also feared that the false bills would be found but I had no choice. I must try my best to save my wife," Liao told the newspaper.

Du's treatment has continued with public assistance.


 

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