Chinese man given prison term for blowing up ATM machines

LANZHOU - A man in Northwest China's Gansu province was given 13 years in prison for stealing money from ATM machines, a local court said Thursday.

According to the people's court in Longxi County, the defendant, Ye, blew up three ATM machines using improvised explosive devices in two cities in 2014. He left the crime scenes empty-handed, however, as the cashboxes remained intact.

On Dec. 14, 2014, he managed to succeeded in cracking an ATM machine in Longxi County and stole cash worth 92,700 yuan (14,300 U.S. dollars).

Ye was arrested on Dec. 23 in the neighboring city of Tianshui and transferred to Longxi for public prosecution.

He was found guilty of larceny and was given a heavy punishment due to the destructive nature of the crime, according to the court statement.

Besides the prison term, Ye was also imposed a fine of 5,000 yuan.