Further arrests of key leaders of the illegal online loan application service operated from Cambodia are thought to be imminent with sixteen out of thirty people sought by police now being held in custody in Thailand.
Four Thai nationals were arrested in Poipet, Cambodia on Sunday bringing to sixteen the number now held in the ongoing manhunt on both sides of the Thai-Cambodian border for up to thirty people involved in an illegal online loan application service which sparked the murder of a mother and her two children in the early hours of Monday, August 28th in Samut Prakan. Cambodian authorities have not yet picked up two key henchmen and the leader of the criminal enterprise believed to be in Cambodia.
The leader of a scam gang responsible for the murder of a mother and two children in Samut Prakan on August 28th is still at large in Cambodia together with two other Chinese associates involved in the direction of the operation.
On Sunday, 10th September, four Thai nationals in the town of Poipet across the border from Sa Kaeo Province inside Cambodia were arrested when police swooped on their premises as they continued to rip off and prey on desperate Thai nationals seeking financial lifelines.
Four young Thai operatives linked with the illegal loan application scam that led to a family being murdered were arrested by Cambodian Police
General Surachate Hapkarn, the deputy police chief who has taken an active interest in the case, revealed that the four Thais, a man and three women, were arrested by Cambodian police after they raided the call centre in the border town while those involved were found actively communicating with Thai people across the border including making phone calls.
The four included a 21-year-old male supervisor, Mr Supol Wongwian, and three Thai women involved in dealing with inquiries and purporting to be loan facilitators on the illegal loan application app.
They were identified as 22-year-old Ms Nisarat Sukasem, 19-year-old Kanonkporn Kraisuk and Kornkanok Singthit, also of the same age.
General Surachate told the media that all four people involved had already been extradited across the border and were in the hands of the Royal Thai Police.
16 people now arrested including bank account holders, mules and Thai operatives in the border town of Poipet but three key players remain elusive
The four latest arrests bring the number detained so far to 16 individuals including those who controlled bank accounts linked with the scam operation and four others who were cash mules or people responsible for withdrawing money from these accounts which were regularly taken from Thai banks and smuggled across the border to Poipet.
Last week, it was reported that the arrests of the three Chinese nationals reported to be responsible for the scheme in Cambodia were imminent.
The tragedy, which prior to August 28th, arose when the wife of 42-year-old Mr Sanich Dokmai organised a loan for over ฿1 million to rectify her family’s financial problems after her husband had plunged the family into debt by acting as guarantor for the purchase of an expensive car by his employer at a logistics warehouse.
Police in Cambodia close in on fake scam loan app leadership after family murders in Samut Prakan
Massive police response to the case of a family murdered by father after ฿1.7 million scam loss last week
Debt and ฿1.7 million loss to scammers drive man to murder his wife and two sons in Samut Prakan
The guarantee given by the family had led to a judgement being handed down and legal proceedings moving to an advanced stage with Thailand’s Legal Execution Department.
This would have meant the repossession of the family’s three-storey townhouse in the Bang Phli area of Samut Prakan.
Wife secured ฿1.39 million in advances to pay over ฿1.7 million to the loan gang after being promised the return of the money with new loan funding
Ms Wiphaporn, Mr Sanich’s wife, had, in the week previous to her murder in the early hours of Monday 28th August, borrowed up to ฿1.39 million to send an advance payment to the loan application online, which it had demanded due to various bogus charges with the loan provider promising that the amounts paid would be returned when the full amount of the loan facility was advanced.
In the aftermath of the outrage, several spokespeople for Thai banks and the Royal Thai Police have made it clear to the public that lenders in Thailand are prohibited from demanding or taking payments in advance when negotiating legitimate loan account facilities and that such demands should always be treated as a red flag.
On Sunday, General Surachate confirmed that there are still up to 14 people, including the leader of the scammer gang, two key associates and others, who are being tracked by both the Thai and Cambodian police in connection with this ongoing case.
He confirmed that all those arrested so far would be facing legal proceedings brought by police at Bang Kaew Police Station in Samut Prakan.
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