The Xu Ting case

Xu Ting, a 25-year-old native of Shanxi province, worked in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, and withdrew 175,000 yuan through 171 ATM transactions in 2006 from his bank card that had only 170 yuan. Xu knew the machine was malfunctioning that day.

Xu was sentenced to life imprisonment in the trial at the Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court on Nov 29, 2007.

The case was extensively reported by the Guangzhou media and caused heated debate among legal circles.

It later became an issue at the National People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference meetings.

In March 31, 2008, the Guangzhou intermediate court changed Xu's life sentence to a fixed-term imprisonment of five years.