Court orders businessman off SorPorKor land
PHUKET: Businessman Charoen Thavornwongwong has been ordered to leave 16 rai of land in Karon’s Nakkerd Hills, after the Phuket Appeal Court overturned the Provincial Court’s earlier judgement that he could stay on the land.
The Appeal Court said that the Phuket Provincial Land Reform Office (PLRO) had been right to contest the judgement of the lower court, on the grounds that the businessman had no right to occupy the four plots of SorPorKor land.
SorPorKor land is state land set aside by the government for allocation to poor people to allow them to grow food and support themselves.
The Appeal Court decided that K. Charoen – whose family owns the Thavorn hotel chain – is neither poor nor a farmer, and therefore ordered him and his associates to vacate the land immediately.
K. Charoen’s lawyer, Surachai Korthong, said that his client would contest the decision, and would present an appeal to the Supreme Court within 30 days.
The PLRO has already succeeded in having three people evicted from SorPorKor land. Narong Nopdara and Tossaporn Thepabutr – the husband of Phuket Provincial Administration Organisation head Anchalee Vanich-Thepabutr – were last year ordered off other land in the Nakkerd Hills, while tycoon Boonkeng Srisansuchart was evicted from land in the Panturat Hills, along the bypass road.
