Divorce scam: Hubby uses counterfeit wife
- Source: Global Times
- [03:07 November 17 2009]
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By Lin Meilian
Counterfeit items are nothing new to China. There are fake iPhones, fake money, fake condoms and now, a fake wife.
A woman in Henan Province was shocked to discover that her husband was able to secure a legitimate divorce certificate from local authorities and "divorce" her legally without her consent, according to dahe. cn, a news website sponsored by Henan Daily.
Since their wedding in 1996, the Pingdingshan couple, Li Xiaoyan, now 37, and her husband, Li Qiang, have had a troubled marriage. She insisted they find a way to work things out. He wanted to break up.
Last January, he found a way to do it.
He showed up at the Pingdingshan Civil Affairs Bureau with the couple's marriage certificates, residency permits, ID cards, and a female imposter who pretended to be his wife.
They asked for a "divorce" and were given a legitimate divorce certificate.
The fiasco might have ended there if the wife hadn't overheard her neighbors gossiping that her husband was showing off the certificate as proof that he was now single.
"The signature and fingerprint are not mine. Moreover, the woman he brought along did not look like me in the (marriage certificate) picture," Li was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
According to marriage regulations, the Civil Affairs Bureau is not authorized to revoke legal divorce papers. So Li went to the local Weidong District People's Court and filed a lawsuit against the bureau, demanding that authorities "restore their marriage," the report said.
A local officer surnamed Huang at the Pingdingshan Civil Affairs Bureau told the Global Times Monday that officers had difficulty telling who was who in the marriage photos.
"It is very hard to tell if someone is the person in the picture, because some might have plastic surgery, wear a heavy make-up or simply get older," Huang said.
He added that it was an isolated case.
Li eventually won her lawsuit and is "remarried" to her husband after the local court ruled the divorce certificate invalid because the real wife was absent from the proceedings.
Whether they remain married is another question.
