Chiang Mai officials steal Thai Identity for Chinese woman

A district chief, village chief, community leader and a resident in the Chiang Dao district of Chiang Mai province have been charged with stealing a Thai identity to create a Thai ID card for a Chinese woman. Each member of the fraudulent group received 800,000 baht for processing the ID card.

Police stumbled on the stolen identity case while investigating the kidnapping of a Chinese man in Pattaya last month.

A 20 year old Thai woman, Alisara Supasiribundit, filed a complaint with the police that her Chinese boyfriend, 41 year old Ren Haibo, had been kidnapped for ransom on Sunday, October 30.

The investigating officer later found Ren at his house in Pattaya. He said he managed to escape from the gang while they were asleep.

The Deputy Commissioner of the Royal Thai Police, Surachate “Big Joke” Hakparn, revealed that officers were suspicious about Ren’s story and his student visa. Their suspicions were realised when they discovered he was not a student at all.

But that’s not all.

Police also investigated the identity of Ren’s girlfriend, Alisara. She presented her Thai ID card to the police but it appeared that her Thai communication skills were poor. As a result, officers suspected Alisara might be involved in identity theft.

Further investigation found that Alisara’s parents, according to unearthed data, were a Thai man named Wa-sae Klongdaranee, and a Thai woman named Phudee Klongdaranee. Officers showed pictures of the Thai couple to Alisa who admitted that she did not know them. Officers’ suspicions proved to be correct and under questioning, Alisara admitted she had a fake ID.

Alisara told police that she gave money to Thai officials to process the ID card, namely: Chiang Dao District Chief Permkiat Thephassadin Na Ayutthaya, village chief Arbae Saelee, community leader Amornthep Pookkham, and local man Wa-sae Klongdaranee. Wa-sae was the father of the woman whose ID Alisara claimed.

The person whose identity had been stolen has not been reported.

The Chinese woman, Alisara, and the five suspects face seven charges including:

• Section 137 of the Criminal Law: whoever gives or reports false information to an official, and that information is likely to cause damage to the person or public, shall be punished with imprisonment of up to six months, a fine of up to 1,000 baht, or both.
• Section 143 of the Criminal Law: any official who demands or agrees to receive property or any benefits and commit a dishonest or unlawful act as a return for any person shall be punished with imprisonment of up to five years, a fine of up to 10,000 baht, or both.
• Section 157 of the Criminal Law: an official, who wrongly exercises or does not exercise any of the duty or dishonestly exercise or omits to exercise according to the duty, shall be punished with imprisonment of one to ten years, a fine of 2,000 to 20,000 baht, or both.
• Section 162 of the Criminal Law: a document official, who wrongfully certifies the information on the document or makes an alteration to the record on the document, shall be punished with imprisonment of up to seven years and a fine of up to 40,000 baht.
• Section 265 of the Criminal Law: whoever forges a document of right or official document shall be punished with imprisonment of six months to five years and a fine of 1,000 to 10,000 baht.
• Section 267 of the Criminal Law: whoever asks the official to record false information on the official document to be used as evidence shall be punished with imprisonment of up to three years, a fine of up to 6,000 baht, or both.
• Section 14 (1) of the Identification Card Act: whoever applies for a Thai identification card with false information or evidence shall be punished with imprisonment of one to five years, a fine of 20,000 to 100,000 baht, or both.