Driving instructor swindles students to fund gambling habit

Li Guoming, a gambling-addicted former driving school instructor, has been charged with swindling 21,300 yuan ($3,420) from four people in Hongkou district, according to Shanghai prosecutors on Monday.

Li was charged with fraud for taking money from potential students for lessons he never delivered. He began working as a driving instructor at an unnamed school in October 2011. The school gave him a car but he had to find his own students, collect their fees and deliver them to the school. However, he stopped handing over said fees a few months later to fund his gambling addiction. Amazingly, the school still took eight months to fire him.

As they also took back the training vehicle, Li borrowed a car from a friend from another driving school and started the con again in December. He parked outside residential compounds, pretending to pick up students for their lessons. Some of the residents actually paid Li to teach them to drive, but he gambled away their money.

[Image via Flickr]