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Bank robber turned out to be SNU-graduated former teacher

Bank robber turned out to be SNU-graduated former teacher

Posted July. 31, 2015 07:14,   

한국어

It has belatedly turned out that the accused thief of MG Community Credit Cooperatives in Seocho-gu, Seoul on July 20 used to be a teacher who graduated from Seoul National University (SNU).

According to Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency of Seocho on Thursday, the accused surnamed Cho (aged 53) testified that he entered the department of physical education in SNU in 1982 and worked for a middle school in Gangbuk-gu for about two years until 1990 after graduating from the university in February 1988.

When arrested, the police didn’t know the fact as he said he had graduated from a high-school in Eunpyeong-gu. “There were opportunities to reveal my academic background during police investigation and detention of suspect but it was too shameful to confess the fact,” Cho testified.

He ran an auto parts supplying company for some time after he had quit the school to help his father’s business and worked as motorcycle courier after the business went bankrupt in 1999. He is accused of breaking into MG Community Credit Cooperatives at around 12:20 p.m. on July 20 and threatened the employees and customers with a plastic-made gun, running away with some 24 million Korean won (approx. 20,454 U.S. dollars). Having analyzed closed-circuit TVs around the affected MG Community Credit Cooperatives for six days, the police arrested Cho who was staying at a house of his acquaintance in southern Seoul on Sunday.

He is known to have testified that he needed to pay back his son’s debt of 30 million won (approx. 25,570 dollars) and his own debt of 50 million won (approx. 42,614 dollars). The police confirmed that he remitted 20 million won (approx. 17,045 dollars) out of 24 million that he took away to his acquaintance and spent the rest in gambling in Gangwon Land in Jeongseon.

“Given the fact that he made two to three times of monthly visits to casinos and racecourses, it appears that he committed a crime due to his gambling issue rather than his economic distress,” sources from the police said.



kyu@donga.com