A man posing as a member of a now-defunct branch of the Imperial Family and a woman were ordered Monday to spend 26 months behind bars for cheating attendees of their fake wedding ceremony out of congratulatory gifts worth nearly 3 million yen.
The Tokyo District Court convicted Yasuyuki Kitano, 44, and Harumi Sakamoto, 47, both unemployed, of fraud.
"The defendants took advantage of the feelings of attendees who respect the Imperial Family and betrayed them. Their crime was vicious," Presiding Judge Takaaki Oshima said as he handed down the ruling.
Prosecutors had demanded that the two be handed three-year prison terms.
Kitano and Sakamoto conspired with a 45-year-old company executive to defraud 61 attendees of their fake wedding ceremony held in Tokyo in April 2003 out of a combined 2.94 million yen in congratulatory gifts, according to the ruling.
Kitano posed as a member of the now defunct Arisugawa family and lied that he married Sakamoto, the court found.
The court dismissed Kitano's claim that he was told by a member of the Imperial Family that he is a descendent of the Arisugawa family and that his real name was Satohito Arisugawa.
"It is obviously a story he made up to pose as a member of a branch of the Imperial Family," Judge Oshima said.
However, the court acquitted the two of swindling 76 other attendees on the grounds that they were aware that Kitano was not a member of the Imperial Family
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