OSAKA -- The Osaka District Court sentenced a 44-year-old unemployed man to a suspended two-year prison term Wednesday for embezzling more than 1 million yen intended as social welfare payments for homeless people.
Presiding Judge Makoto Okada said Toshihiro Wada falsely posed as head of a volunteer organization in charge of welfare assistance for three homeless people.
The judge described the act as a vicious crime that was premeditated and committed in a shrewd manner.
According to the court, Wada conspired with several others to pass himself off as head of the Joto branch of Kensei Renmei Kai and made the three homeless people take up welfare assistance from November to March.
Of 1.5 million yen received in welfare assistance funds, Wada only handed over 250,000 yen to the homeless, the court said.
Prosecutors had demanded a two-year prison term. The sentence was suspended for five years.