School lunch scam: Supreme Court jails ex-director for 25 years
Former Surat Thani school head loses final appeal in corruption case
Thailand’s top court has slammed the door on a crooked school director who cheated children out of lunches, locking him away for 25 years.
The Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal from Somchao Sitthichen, former director of Ban Tha Mai School in Surat Thani, in one of the country’s most notorious school lunch corruption scandals.
The case first grabbed headlines after the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) revealed that kindergarten pupils were fed nothing more than fermented rice noodles with fish sauce, despite official records claiming the purchase of nutritious meals.
The NACC Region 8 investigation concluded that Somchao had breached several sections of the Criminal Code, forwarding the case to the Office of the Attorney General in 2020.
In its initial ruling, the Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct Region 8 sentenced Somchao to 192 years and six months across 77 separate counts. Under Thai law, however, the maximum sentence that could be enforced was 50 years.
The Court of Appeals later amended the verdict, identifying 10 distinct offences, each carrying a five-year term. Taking into account his partial confession and mitigating circumstances, the punishment was cut in half to two years and six months per count, totalling 25 years in prison, reported Bangkok Post.
With the Supreme Court’s decision to dismiss his final appeal, the ruling is now considered final. Somchao has since been transferred to Nakhon Si Thammarat Central Prison to begin serving his sentence.
Officials say the case highlights the government’s zero-tolerance approach to corruption in the education system. The NACC has repeatedly flagged fraudulent lunch programmes as a recurring issue in rural schools, warning that abuse of budgets meant for children’s welfare will not be tolerated.
The scandal triggered public outrage, with critics arguing that exploiting food budgets for young children was among the most shameful acts of misconduct.
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