A father and son who filed false civil lawsuits in local courts to cheat money from their victims have been sentenced to seven months in jail and fined 10,000 yuan (US$1,476) each after prosecutors in Qingpu District noticed their trick and lodged a protest against the court judgments, the Qingpu District People's Procuratorate announced Wednesday.

According to the procuratorate, a couple among the victims borrowed a total of 230,000 yuan (US$33,925) from the father and son, surnamed Ding, at a very high interest rate between June 2015 and June 2016. However, to gain more money, the Dings designed traps for the victims.

The Dings asked the couple to write them IOUs and receipts four times with amounts much higher than their loans. They also had the couple use their house as collateral. Meanwhile, the Dings forged a 1-million-yuan bank turnover by transferring 1 million yuan to the couple's bank account and then taking the money back from them.

Carrying the IOUs, receipts and bank records, the Dings brought the couple to local courts twice in July and September 2016, respectively asking for 500,000 yuan and 550,000 yuan. Their requests were upheld by the court in October.

However, their deeds were detected by prosecutors in Qingpu District. The prosecutors, who received new evidence about the Dings' false suit, made an application to the No.2 Branch of the Shanghai People's Procuratorate to lodge a protest against the previous court judgments in November last year, which was approved by the branch.

The Dings were later sentenced by the Hongkou District People's Court to seven months behind bars and fined 10,000 yuan each.