Nong Khai police began an enquiry after it received a copy of a forged road traffic ticket sent by the man on the LINE social media network. His girlfriend has sent it to a friend at the public prosecutor’s office to verify after becoming suspicious
A Thai soldier has been arrested and is facing forgery charges and offences under the Computer Crime Act all for trying to fraudulently obtain ฿800 ($26) from his supportive girlfriend by preying on her goodwill towards him.
An Udon Thani soldier has found himself in hot water with police in Nong Khai province and also with his girlfriend after concocting a complicated lie to inveigle ฿800 from his loved one’s purse. He was caught out by her eagled eyed friend who happened to also work in the Thai prosecutor’s office. An unfortunate series of events for the 23-year-old private which looks it may prove his downfall.
Invited on Monday to a police station and brought before an investigation team in Nong Khai
He was visited by officers on Monday and taken in for questioning by an investigation team at Nong Khai police station. The soldier was detained and an enquiry into the incident commenced on the orders of Police Colonel Kasem Mutaporn. The man has been named as Stapakorn Kodpetch.
Trouble began on Thursday
The trouble began last Thursday when the police in Nong Khai were contacted about a purported road traffic ticket that had been issued to the young soldier for failing to wear a motorcycle helmet while driving a motorbike as well as having no insurance. His insurance certificate for the motorbike had reportedly expired over 47 days previously.
Sent the road traffic ticket to his girlfriend on LINE
It transpired that the solider had sent the ticket online to his girlfriend who is resident in another province. He suggested that he had been forced to pay the fine at a local police station in Nong Khai.
The young man sent the forged ticket on the LINE social network app with an earnest request to the woman in his life to send him money to reimburse him after paying out the financial penalty.
Woman sent it to her friend, a public prosecutor
He told investigating police that he recalled how het up his girlfriend had become during previous arguments about failing to wear a helmet and felt confident that she would give him the money on this pretext.
He was right, his girlfriend promised to send the funds but on reflection thought that the police ticket looked off and sent it to her friend online, the public prosecutor.
This led to the young man being exposed as a fraudster, forger and a man who had committed serious criminal offences as well as being a cad who had abused the trust of someone who cared for him.
Handwritten note embossed with a downloaded Royal Thai Police emblem at the top
The ticket was handwritten but referenced the names of two police officers. The note had a police stamp embossed at the top which Mr Stapakorn had downloaded from the internet.
The fines were ฿300 for failing to wear a helmet and ฿500 for lack of insurance. The conman put the poorly constructed forgery over to his girlfriend online by explaining that the handwriting was that of one of the police officers – ‘The police wrote this for me. He said it’s already in the computer system,’ he plausibly told her.
Investigation ordered by a senior police officer
Police quickly pursued the matter and found from CCTV footage that the 23-year-old soldier had never been at the police station to pay the fine as he had claimed to his girlfriend.
Neither did either of the two police officers identified by the man exist. On this basis, the police decided it was time to talk to the young man. They found him at home. He was asked to cooperate with enquiries at the local police station.
Facing a slew of serious charges
The soldier is now facing charges of forging an official government document as well as violating the Computer Crime Act by inputting false information into a computer system when he dispatched the forgery to his love partner online.
All for ฿800 which the man never received. Local media reports do not indicate anything about the current status of the man’s relationship with his girlfriend. This may ultimately have some bearing on the case but for now, his prospects are decidedly not looking good at all.
Further reading:
Rogue son fakes kidnapping in northern Thailand but loving parents simply want him at home
Star defrocked as a monk and arrested in ฿13 million credit card fraud linked to Udon Thani hotel
