In-debt TT&T tech turned to theft
A former technical chief of the TT&T telephone company and four other people have been arrested on charges of stealing fiber optic and copper cables early on Sunday morning, police said yesterday.
Pol Maj Gen Waranwat Karunyathat, commander of the Metropolitan Police Division 8, said police received a phone call from Wichai Nantakasikorn, a TOT Plc engineer, that he suspected thieves were cutting cables near a shop in Soi Lat Ya 15 on Lat Ya road in Klong San district about 3am.
Police rushed to the scene and found five people cutting cables near a manhole surrounded by safety cones and construction lamps on the road.
When they were asked to show the company document permitting them to go-ahead with the cable removal, they produced a document from the Telephone Organisation of Thailand.
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| One of the suspects in an alleged copper and fibre optic cable theft is put through a re-enactment of his crime after his arrest. Five people, including a former technical chief of the TT&T telephone company, have been arrested and charged. — KOSOL NAKACHOL |
Since the organisation's name had been changed to TOT Plc, police knew the document was bound to be fake.
Pol Maj Gen Waranwat said the arrested men were identified as Weerachai Kesornjan, 33, the former chief mechanic of the TT&T company, Wanlop Imrat, 38, Nathee Damri, 25, Sarawut Plaharn, 19, and Thawatchai Puthong, 28.
Police seized 93 length of cable between two and 3.5 metres in length, worth about 900,000 baht.
Other confiscated items included a six-wheel truck, a pick-up truck, two pairs of cable cutters, a dynamo, a set of construction lamps, a water pump, three crowbars, a 4.50m chain and 10 safety cones.
Pol Maj Gen Waranwat said all the suspects had confessed.
Mr Weerachai said when he was working with the TT&T he received a monthly salary of only 5,000 baht.
The suspect said he was deeply in debt and owed over a hundred thousand baht to loan sharks. He borrowed the money to pay for his house and pick-up truck.
Beset by the meagre wages and his huge debt, Mr Weerachai decided to quit his job in April after the other four suspects asked him to join their gang and help steal cables.
Mr Weerachai said his pick-up truck and the rented six-wheeler were used in the crimes they had committed.The gang would pass themselves off as cable repairmen.
If officials dropped by for an inspection theywould produce the fake document, which Mr Weerachai had forged while he was still working with the TT&T.
The stolen cables were sold to a scrap dealer in the Lam Pak Chee area for 230 baht per kilogramme, he added.
Pol Maj Gen Waranwat said the gang admitted to 16 cable thefts _ eight in Yannawa, two in Sam Re and six in the Somdet Chao Phraya area. They are charged with stealing public property.
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