Officials robbed of more than 1.3m yuan

A verdict handed down by a court in Hefei, Anhui province, shows that a local couple, both officials, lost more than 1.3 million yuan ($203,000) of property when two robbers broke into their home in April 2015.

The verdict said the wife is surnamed Han and the husband is surnamed Shi.

A report by thepaper.cn on Thursday said they are Han Jianhui, deputy director of the social insurance office of the Anhui provincial government's Finance Department, and her husband, Shi Ping, head of the provincial government's Transport Department.

Ma Jian and an accomplice, surnamed Xie, followed Han, who was returning home after work, and forced her to let them into the couple's apartment at gunpoint, according to the court verdict.

The robbers took 830,700 yuan and $28,980 in cash from the apartment plus 74 shopping cards and other property, including cigarettes and a cell phone, which were together worth more than 288,000 yuan.

Han called Shi after the robbery and the husband later reported it to the police, according to the verdict.

It said Ma had been engaged in the construction business but met financial difficulties. Meanwhile, he learned from media reports that a ring of thieves had targeted more than a dozen officials nationwide.

The ring, which included two women, stole from officials from 2007 to 2013. The victims included two officials in Hefei, who were later probed for corruption after their enormous losses were noticed by the provincial anti-graft authorities. The thieves were jailed in 2016.

Ma learned that some victims dared not call police.

Ma and Xie found photographs of Shi online and followed him home from his office one day. Later, they pretended to be homebuyers looking for a similar apartment and entered the community, accompanied by a property firm employee.

Another day, they waited in the apartment building's corridor until Han returned and prepared to open the door, forcing her to let them in.

Xie was arrested a day later in Hefei and Ma in October, 2017, in Jiangxi province.

Ma was sentenced to 14 years in prison for robbery on April 28. The Hefei court verdict did not deal with Xie's case or say what sentence he received.

The verdict was released on Monday by the Hefei Intermediate People's Court on China Judgement Online, a website operated by the Supreme People's Court. However, it appeared to have been removed by Thursday.

Thepaper.cn report cited Shi as saying by phone on Wednesday evening that the local anti-graft authorities had investigated his case.

The verdict said Han claimed the cash had been prepared for the couple's son to purchase a new apartment.