Filipino man stays at Bangkok hotels and vanishes without paying
Fraudulent guest claims father will pay bills then disappears
Police arrested a Filipino university student for staying at several five-star hotels in Bangkok without paying, causing losses of several hundred thousand baht.
Officers from Immigration Division 1 received multiple complaints from hotel staff in Bangkok regarding fraudulent activities involving a Filipino national. The man reportedly deceived hotel employees to obtain free stays and meals at luxury hotels across the city.
According to hotel staff, the suspect booked stays for four to five nights via an online booking platform, selecting the option to pay by credit card upon arrival. He also arranged limousine services to collect him and his father from the airport on two separate days.
Upon check-in, the suspect refused to pay, claiming that his father would arrive the following day to settle the bill, which included accommodation, meals, and other services.
Hotel staff, seeing a valid booking for the limousine service scheduled for the next day, allowed the foreigner to stay and use the hotel’s facilities.
However, the suspect’s father never arrived. The man subsequently vanished from his hotel room the following day and cut off all communication with the hotel.
Immigration officers launched an investigation and discovered that the Filipino national was not a tourist but a student at a university in the Rangsit area of Pathum Thani province near Bangkok. He was later identified as 26 year old Leonardo Hernandez and was arrested at his residence on April 25.
Hernandez was charged under Section 341 of the Criminal Law for committing fraud by deceiving another person through a false statement or by concealing the truth. The offence carries a penalty of up to three years’ imprisonment, a fine of up to 60,000 baht, or both.
The suspect is currently in custody at Yannawa Police Station, awaiting further legal proceedings.
A similar case of fraud was reported in Phuket in December last year, when several hotels launched a search for a Dutchman who fled without paying for his accommodation and stole multiple items, including room keys. No updates regarding his arrest have been made public.
In addition to hotel fraud, several dine and dash incidents made headlines in Phuket. In March, two foreign couples absconded without paying for their meals, while in January, a Russian couple was caught committing similar offences at numerous restaurants across the province.
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