Officers face 50 years in jail for soliciting bribes from erotic massage parlour

Four police officers were sentenced to 50 years in prison after they solicited bribes from an erotic massage parlor in the Din Daeng district of Bangkok.

Officers from the Office of Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) raided Nataree Massage after being notified the establishment was using women under the age of 18 that had been trafficked. The raid took place on June 7, 2016, but has only just been announced.

Officers arrested 119 women illegally making money from prostitution. Seven of the group were under 18 years old: one was Thai and the others were Burmese.

The owner of the business, Prasert Sookhee, and the manager, Sommai Padsing, were arrested for their involvement in human trafficking, providing shelters for illegal migrants, operating erotic massage without permission, and sexual exploitation of children aged under 18 years old. The other staff members involved in the corrupt practices were arrested on different charges.

The owner faces 13 years in jail while the manager and other staff face imprisonment ranging from 8 years to 12 years.

Three documents featured the names of 25 government officials on the take, with concealed transfers wired to their departments.

The payment transfers ranged from 5,000 baht to 80,000 baht. In total, the business provided government officials with about 600,000 baht per month, from its monthly income of 19 million baht a month.

The PACC report revealed four police officers were heavily involved in all of the illegal dealings. Their identities haven’t been revealed. Two of them have been sentenced by the Criminal Court, and the other two are still awaiting sentence.

The first police officer is reported to be a Metropolitan Police Bureau squad leader, a senior Sergeant Major S. He took money from the massage parlour 65 times, totalling 641,000 baht.

On February 2, this year, he was sentenced to 50 years in jail, decreased from the original 325 years.

The second police officer is reported to be an Immigration Bureau squad leader, Police Senior Sergeant Major Y. He received money from the business 17 times, totalling over 1.3 million baht.

Sergeant Major Y was sentenced by the Criminal Court on Monday. He was originally sentenced to 85 years in jail, but the penalty was mitigated to 50 years.

PACC added in the report that this case helped level up the human trafficking situation in Thailand on the annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report. Thailand was promoted from Tier 2 Watch List to Tier 2 in July this year.

SOURCE: Khaosod