Swedish man accused of swindling money charged for overstaying

Police arrested a Swedish man who overstayed his visa in Chon Buri by over seven years. He was also accused of swindling money from Thai people.

The Immigration Bureau Division 3 arrested the 50 year old Swedish man, Lennart Alexander, at a rental house in the Si Racha district of Chon Buri. He was initially charged with overstaying his visa by 2,610 days or about seven years. He arrived in Thailand via Suvarnabhumi Airport on January 7 in 2016.

The arrest was made following a complaint from a Thai woman who rented him a house. The woman reported that Alexander claimed to be a millionaire from Sweden and came to Thailand to start a new business. He even showed her his bank account to prove he had several million baht in savings.

However, the woman later realized that Alexander was not who he claimed to be. Moreover, he took advantage of her trust and the locals in the area for his benefit.

The woman explained that she never received any rent from him. He also took advantage of several people in the community and borrowed money from them. He said he needed the money for business investment, but spent that money on his daily living.

The woman said she later realised that the man was not a rich businessman at all and decided to file a complaint with the police.

Overstaying more than one year will result in a ten-year ban from entering the country and a fine of 20,000 baht according to the Immigration Act. Alexander was only charged for overstaying. The charge for his fraudulent actions were not reported.

Four foreigners were arrested for overstaying this week. On Tuesday, an Indian man, 38 year old Jatinder Singh, was arrested in Chon Buri for overstaying his visa by nearly six years. Singh was also accused of working with a call centre scam gang.

On the same day, an Iraqi man, 52 year old Khalid Majeed Ali, was arrested at a house in Chon Buri for overstaying his visa by over eight years. Officers reported that Ali was shocked when seeing the police officers and broke into tears while being held at the police station.

Today, two foreigners were arrested for overstaying in Bangkok. The first person was a British man, 76 year old Joseph Taylor, who overstayed by over 11 years, and another was a 62 year old Singaporean man, Ng Wing Onn, who overstayed by nearly four years.