Bank ordered to pay beauty queen after 4 million baht scam
Thailand’s Civil Court ordered a bank to pay 1 million baht in compensation to beauty queen Charlotte Austin after ruling that it shared responsibility for allowing fraudulent transfers linked to a call centre scam.
Charlotte Austin, the Thai-British fifth runner-up in Miss Grand Thailand 2022, lost 4 million baht after being deceived by fraudsters posing as police officers.
According to the case, the scammers falsely claimed that Charlotte’s name had been used to open a bank account connected to criminal activity. They convinced her that she was under investigation and needed to cooperate with authorities.
The fraudsters reportedly kept Charlotte on a video call for around 24 hours and prevented her from contacting family or friends by controlling her mobile phone.
Believing she was assisting a police investigation, Charlotte transferred a total of 4 million baht into accounts later identified as mule accounts. The scammers told her the transfers were required for financial verification.
The deception came to light after Miss Grand International president Nawat Itsaragrisil and members of the organisation became concerned about Charlotte’s unusual behaviour and alerted authorities.
Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau officers later arrested four members of the call centre scam network.
On Saturday, July 11, Charlotte’s lawyer, Nitithon “James” Kaewto, provided an update on the legal proceedings. The four accused each received prison sentences of up to 19 years and six months. The court also ordered them to jointly pay Charlotte 4 million baht in compensation, together with annual interest at 5%.
Charlotte separately filed a civil lawsuit against the bank, alleging it had breached its duty of care by allowing the high-risk transactions to proceed.
The Civil Court ruled that both Charlotte and the bank had acted negligently in relation to the transfers. As a result, the court ordered the bank to pay 1 million baht in compensation, together with annual interest at 5%.
The bank was also ordered to pay 20,000 baht towards Charlotte’s legal costs.
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