Man jailed for selling cars seized by court

A man who sold 51 of his company's cars which had been seized by a local court was given seven months for illegal disposal of seized property at Jing'an District People's Court on Thursday.

The man surnamed Zhao had defaulted on more than 40 million yuan (US$5.8 million) of debt.

In January 2017, a local loan company provided loans for three companies to purchase cars. However, when the loans came due, all three refused to pay up. The lender then brought a civil action against them and their guarantors, one of whom was Zhao, at Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People's Court. 

At that hearing, the defendants agreed to return over 42 million yuan to the plaintiff, but did nothing. The plaintiff then made an application to the court for enforcement and several cars were seized by the court.

In September 2017, the court discovered that Zhao had sold 51 of the 150-plus cars seized in July and August. The case was transferred to Jing'an police who tried to trace Zhao online. In January this year, Zhao gave himself up.

The Jing'an District People's Court heard the case on December 14 and gave a ruling on Thursday. Since the money Zhao received from the sales was all used to pay the plaintiff, he got a relatively light penalty.