Is it illegal to steal property to set off debt?

Legal situation:

Please advise me, I owned Mr.B VND 100,000,000, and currently, I don’t have enough money to pay the debt. Mr.B stole my motorbike worth VND 40,000,000 while I was sleeping to distrain the debt. Did Mr. B violate the law? If Mr.B compensates damages and I propose to exempt Mr.B from criminal liability, shall he bear criminal responsibility?

Answer:

Thank you for trusting and sending your questions to FDVN Law Firm, after researching the legal provisions, we would like to send you some references as follows:

Pursuant to Article 195 of Civil Code 2015, a non-owner of property shall only have the right to dispose of the property pursuant to authorization from the owner or in accordance with provisions of the law.

The act of arbitrarily disposing the borrower’s property or to “distrain” is an act of infringing upon the property rights of others. Borrowing money is a civil relation, even in case creditor cannot claim a debt, he/she is not allowed to arbitrarily take the debtor’s property to distrain for the debt. To legally collect overdue debts, creditors can initiate lawsuits at the Court to ask the tribunal to protect their legitimate rights and interests. The act of taking (moving) property that is under the ownership of others is not legal and may be subject to criminal liability.

Regarding Mr.B’s behavior, Mr.B surreptitiously stole your motorbike with the value of VND 40 million, B’s act has signs of constituting the crime of property theft described in Clause 1, Article 173 of Criminal Code 2015.

Regarding basis for exemption from criminal responsibility, Article 29 of Criminal Code 2015 stipulates:

“1. A criminal offender shall be exempt from criminal responsibility on one of the following bases:

a) A policy or law is changed during the process of investigation, prosecution or trial and accordingly, the offender's act is no longer dangerous to society;

b) A general amnesty is granted.

2. A criminal offender might be exempt from criminal responsibility on one of the following bases:

a) The situation is changed during the process of investigation, prosecution or trial and accordingly, the offender is no longer dangerous to society;

b) The offender has a fatal disease during the process of investigation, prosecution or trial and no longer poses a threat to society;

c) Before the criminal act is discovered, the offender confesses his/her crime, contributes to the crime discovery and investigation; minimizes the damage inflicted by his/her crime, have made reparation or special contributions that are recognized by the State and society.

3. The person who commits a serious crime unintentionally or less serious crime causing damage to the life, health, honor, dignity or property of another person, has voluntarily repaired and compensated for the damage. For harm or remedial consequences and is voluntarily reconciled by the victim or the victim’s legal representative and proposed to be exempt from penal liability, he or she may be exempt from penal liability”.

With the provisions as mentioned above, in case Mr.B is considered by the prosecution authorities to commit acts of a less serious crime, if he voluntarily repairs, compensates for damages, or overcomes consequences, and he is voluntarily conciliated, proposed to be exempt from criminal liability, he may be exempt from criminal liability.

Above is FDVN LAW FIRM’s opinion for your consulting requests based on studying the relevant legal provisions. Hopefully, FDVN’s advice would be helpful to you.

Attorney Duyên Trần – FDVN Law Firm 

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