A former inmate and graduate student at a prestigious university was caught stealing computers on campuses in Chengdu, Sichuan province, Western China Metropolitan Daily reported.

In June, a university in the Xindu district of Chengdu called police after four computer monitors were stolen from a laboratory.

Police found it was the fourth time a thief had been reported at the university's computer laboratory, where more than 20 computers had disappeared.

Dang Yaowei, a police officer in charge of the case, said the suspect, whose name was not disclosed, had been a graduate student.

The suspect was born in a mountain village in Chongqing municipality and graduated from Wuhan University in 2006 before enrolling at Fudan University's graduate school in 2007.

He was suspended from the university in 2010 when he was caught stealing a computer from a dormitory.

After completing a two-year prison sentence last year, he started working at a software company in Chengdu, but later resigned after feeling his ability was not recognized by the company.

Police said the suspect confessed to stealing computers at different universities in Chengdu to take revenge on society. He said his family had stopped contacting him after he was suspended by Fudan University.