The 23-year-old woman identified as "A" called a private emergency rescue company to take her father, whom she called an "alcoholic", to a hospital in early August. Rescue workers immediately picked up the 61-year-old man from his house in Seongbuk-gu, Seoul and took him to a mental hospital in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province.

As soon as her father was hospitalized, the woman went on a spending spree with his credit card. She bought W2.06 million (US$1=W917) in merchandise in one day at a department store in Gangnam, southern Seoul, and spent W3.9 million on beauty care. She also took a dance class and watched performances. Prosecutors said the woman spent W9.96 million in the more than 40 days her father was in the hospital.

After relatives were unable to contact the father they contacted police for help. With the help of police, the father left the mental hospital on Sept. 19, 42 days after he was admitted.

A was quickly arrested. She told police that she had charged her father as an alcoholic because he had verbally abused her over the phone when he was drunk and left dozens of voice messages when she didn't answer his calls. A has not lived with her father since her mother died.

The Seoul Central Prosecutors' Office indicted the woman on Monday on charges of detaining a relative and violating a financial law. A prosecutor said that while the father was problematic, the daughter must not have been thinking clearly.

(englishnews@chosun.com )