Man to stay behind bars for 5th time for fraud

A recidivist who had been jailed four times for fraud is going to get himself tossed behind bars again, Huangpu District prosecutors said yesterday.

This time, the suspect, surnamed Zhang, targeted seven recycling vendors and cheated them out of 10,000 yuan (US$1,582) across the city.

Prosecutors said Zhang, 48, has a college degree but never said why he kept committing crimes instead of finding a job.

Zhang claimed he was a university teacher and told the recycling vendors that the school library would dispose of many old books during renovation and he was in charge of this.

He asked the vendors for a commission by promising he would send the books to the vendors' stalls. But he simply disappeared after getting the money, the prosecutor said.

Between October and May, seven recycling vendors fell victim to Zhang scam, prosecutors said. The victims said Zhang was familiar with the school campus and took them to the library.

Zhang was caught in May. He has already served four prison sentences for fraud since May 1995.