A funeral director in his 40s who secretly siphoned off funeral event fees deposited by residents and used them to fund gambling has become a convicted felon.

Judge Lee Eun-sang of Chuncheon District Court Criminal Division 안전놀이터3 sentenced Mr. A, 47, to 10 months in prison and two years of probation for business embezzlement.

Mr. A, who worked as a funeral director at a funeral home in Inje-gun, was tried on April 8, 2020, for stealing a total of KRW 55.43 million in funeral event fees deposited by residents over a three-week period on nine occasions.

According to the investigation, Mr. A did not deposit the money collected from residents for funeral events such as goods and meals into the funeral home management account, but used it to fund gambling on private gambling sites on the Internet.

The judge pointed out that “the number of crimes is not small and the amount of damage is considerable,” and that “in light of the motives and methods of the crimes, the crimes are not good and have not been forgiven by the victims.”

However, “the defendant’s father’s repayment of approximately 60 million won, the fact that the damage appears to have been substantially restored, and his lack of a criminal history were taken into consideration in determining the sentence,” the judge wrote.