Body Doubles Are Being Hired in China to Avoid Prison - as part of the news series by GeoBeats.

Criminals in China are hiring stand-in defendants to serve their prison time. One case involves an upper class Chinese citizen who crashed into a pedestrian while drag racing through the city streets. Pictures of the driver with his friends after the accident, smoking cigarettes and laughing, were the subject of many internet users’ scrutiny. Then pictures of the defendant in court were posted online where people expressed doubt as to whether the man standing trial was in fact the same man who was driving the car that hit and killed the pedestrian.

The practice is not uncommon. Historians as far back as the mid 1800s reported that the Chinese judicial system “permitted” for criminals to pay willing stand ins to serve their time in jail, or even be executed in their stead. Recently there have been other cases of the children of famous, powerful, or wealthy parents driving recklessly and thinking that they are exempt from punishment. Like one fifteen year old who crashed his BMW and was cited for driving without a license after a reported 36 other traffic violations.