Customer Left Unconscious and Dies After Forced Drinking... Bar Owner Sentenced to 6 Years in Prison

Made the Customer Lose Consciousness Through Rapid Excessive Drinking
Inflated the Bill and Made Unauthorized Credit Card Charges

The owner and employees of an entertainment bar who deliberately intoxicated a customer, inflated the bill, and then left the unconscious customer unattended—resulting in his death—have been sentenced to prison terms.

According to Yonhap News on August 14, the 6th Criminal Division of the Busan District Court (Presiding Judge Lim Sungcheol) sentenced the owner of the establishment, identified as A and in his 30s, to six years in prison on charges of abandonment resulting in death and computer fraud. The court also sentenced employee B, who was prosecuted together with A, to two years in prison. Two other employees each received a one-year sentence, while an additional employee was sentenced to ten months in prison.

A and the others were found to have lured customer C into the entertainment bar through street solicitation on October 24, 2024. Together with the employees, they made C consume one bottle of whiskey and beer in a short period, causing him to lose consciousness. They then inflated the bill, processed the payment, and left C unconscious, resulting in his death. All were subsequently brought to trial on applicable charges.

It was found that this establishment had already been systematically carrying out these so-called “operations,” purposefully making customers extremely drunk and then charging exorbitant prices. To conceal unauthorized payments, they would bring several empty whiskey bottles into the room before processing the bill, and the proceeds from these scams were divided among the staff involved.

After C lost consciousness, A and the others attempted to unlock his mobile phone using his fingerprint but failed, so they took out his credit card and made an unauthorized payment of KRW 910,000. They also attempted an additional payment of KRW 1,320,000 but did not succeed. C remained unattended inside the room for about three hours and twenty minutes after losing consciousness and eventually died of acute alcohol intoxication.

The court acknowledged both the foreseeability of the victim's death and the causal relationship between the defendants' abandonment and his death. The court stated, “The defendants’ so-called ‘operation’ structure requires that the customer be so unconscious that they cannot notice their fingerprint being used or a card being removed from their wallet. Causing unconsciousness through excessive alcohol consumption must be regarded, in itself, as posing a fatal threat to someone’s life or physical well-being.”

Regarding the reasons for sentencing, the court said, “They made no active effort to check on or rouse the customer, even though they knew he had fallen unconscious.” The court added, “In determining the sentences, we considered that the defendants conspired to cover up the crime afterward, attempted to delete mobile phone conversations, made no efforts to restore the victim’s losses or seek forgiveness from the bereaved, and otherwise took steps to conceal the offense.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.