Suspects held for stealing 1.7 million baht from a Briton

BANGKOK: A Thai graduate student and two female accomplices were arrested for allegedly stealing 1.7 million baht from a Briton via e-banking facilities and ATMs, police said yesterday.

Tourist Police Division Chief Maj-General Adis Ngamjitsuksri yesterday presented three suspects at a press conference along with 10 items of evidence that included five mobile phones, a notebook computer and a PC.

The suspects were  25-year-old student Thanayuth Samatchai; Supichyada Hanrob, 25; and Porntip Roopchaiyaphum, 21.

Siam Commercial Bank had alerted the Economic and Cyber Crime Division Center for Transnational Crime. The bank had reported that some thieves had stolen the personal data of a British customer; then allegedly transferred 1.72 million baht of the Briton’s money into a third person’s account, from which the perpetrators then withdrew the funds in cash through an ATM.

The investigation concluded that Porntip had given her British ex-boyfriend’s ATM and credit-card information to Supichyada, Adis said.

Supichyada reportedly used her close connections with a bank employee to change the Briton’s password without having the required documents, and then transferred the money into the account of a person named Kannika Kusima in Surin province. Thanayuth and the others then used an ATM card to withdraw the cash.

Porntip reportedly received some of the money, which she used to get back land that had been pawned with a bank.

The investigation also found that 100,000 baht had been transferred from the account to a suspected accomplice, a Cambodian man named Sitha Mo, the policeman said.

— The Nation