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A teenage girl and her younger brother have been indicted after drugging their father with sleeping pills and using his phone to take out loans worth tens of millions of won.

The Criminal Division 1 of the Ulsan District Prosecutors' Office, led by chief prosecutor Lee Ho-seok, indicted the girl, identified as A, and her boyfriend, identified as B, on June 22 on charges of robbery and fraud involving the use of computers and electronic devices. A's younger brother was referred to the court's juvenile division on the same charges.

According to prosecutors, the group ground up prescription sleeping pills obtained from a hospital in 2024, mixed the powder into coffee and gave it to A's father, who is in his 40s. Once he fell asleep, they used his phone to take out a loan of more than 30 million won ($19,900) from a bank.

They then withdrew a total of about 40 million won from the account and used the money to buy gold. They resold the gold for cash and spent the proceeds on personal expenses, including skin care treatments.

The scheme came to light after the father woke up, discovered his children had disappeared from the home and filed a missing persons report.

Police located the siblings and B within a day of the report and questioned them, but applied the computer fraud charge only to B, as he had been the one to take out the loan using the phone.

During the police investigation, B told investigators that A had administered the sleeping pills, but A denied any involvement, and her brother backed her up, saying she had not taken part. Police closed the case without further investigation.

Prosecutors carried out a supplementary investigation in November last year, however, and confirmed that the siblings had acted as accomplices.

In a joint confrontation interview with the siblings and B, the siblings reportedly admitted that they had ground up the prescription sleeping pills and mixed them into their father's coffee.

Prosecutors determined that A's act of rendering her father incapacitated through the sleeping pills and then using his phone to secure the loan constituted robbery, and indicted her alongside B.


bbo@heraldcorp.com