>> Short on petrol, station owner arrested
>> Investigators make largest petrol skimming bust yet
Police made a second arrest in the petrol station that was caught during a crackdown on scams.
The largest petrol skimming case uncovered to date in Vietnam took modern technology and an electronic chip to work.
The man that is said to be responsible for the chip is Nguyen Tuan Quang from Quang Nguyen Hamlet, Quang Phu Cau Commune, Ung Hoa District, Hanoi.
Nguyen Van Quang was arrested on July 31, 2010
At the police station, Quang confessed that he had made and controlled the chip to cheat customers.
Nguyen The Loc, owner of the petrol station, had used an electronic chip which controls the amount of petrol sold to customers, allowing them to skim customers for a profit. Before being caught in the act of shorting petrol by the police, Loc was using an electronic board in the garage to control the flow of petrol. However, it was large and could be easily discovered so he hired Quang to make a smaller chip and put it in the office.
Quang also admitted that daily, he followed requests of Loc to skim customers. During “peak hours”, from 6am to 8am and from 4pm to 6pm, Quang controlled the chip to short customers by 0.7-0.8 litres of petrol for every 10 sold. During the remaining hours, the chip was set to short customers by 0.3-0.5 litres of petrol for every 10 sold.
On July 28, a warrant was issued for the arrest of Nguyen The Loc although formal charges have not yet been pressed.
The police are conducting further investigation.