Former prison officer arrested for stealing 3 million baht from inmates

Officers from the Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) arrested a former prison officer for stealing about 3 million baht from more than 1,000 inmates after evading arrest for 10 years.

The crime took place at the Central Prison in the central province of Nakhon Sawan in 2013. The suspect, 45 year old woman named Matira, was found stealing the money that the inmates’ family members and relatives deposited for each inmate to spend inside the prison.

Matira stole the money by forging a fake deposit receipt with an amount less than what the family and relatives deposited in order to keep the difference for herself.

The embezzlement was also difficult to detect. Matira gained the trust of both her colleagues and the inmates’ families because she had worked at the prison for over 20 years.

Moreover, the families could only meet the inmates once a month and did not have much time to discuss their daily lives. Each inmate was only allowed to spend 500 baht a day, so they did not expect their relatives to deposit large sums of money.

The former prison officer forged the deposit slip 145 times and managed to steal around 3 million baht from more than 1,000 inmates.

After her crime was uncovered, Matira resigned from her position and continued to evade arrest for 10 years. She asked her family to stop contacting her and went to work for a leasing company in the northern province of Kampaeng Phet.

PACC officers were able to locate and arrest Matira yesterday, December 26 in Kampaeng Phet province. Matira eventually confessed to the crime, saying that most of the money was spent on gambling. She faces two charges including:

• Section 161 of the Criminal Law: misusing the official position power to create a fake document. The penalty will be imprisonment of up to 10 years and a fine of up to 200,000 baht.
• Section 147 of the Criminal Law: misusing the official position power to embezzle assets of another person. The penalty will be imprisonment from five to 20 years, life imprisonment, and a fine from 100,000 to 400,000 baht.
• Section 157 of the Criminal Law: dishonestly exercising any of official duties to cause damages to another person. The penalty will be imprisonment from one to 10 years, a fine from 2,000 to 20,000 baht., or both.