Pump attendant admits to B20m fuel sales scam

Pump attendant admits to B20m fuel sales scam

NAKHON SI THAMMARAT - A woman attendant at a petrol station has admitted to stealing 20 million baht from sales of fuel over five months by using false credit card slips, according to police.

Chuleeporn Pitakchotchawong, 37, was taken by police to Thung Song provincial court on Thursday, where they obtained approval to detain her for further questioning on theft charges.

Ms Chuleeporn is the key suspect in the case. She stands accused of collusion in embezzling money from the sale of fuel at PTT Pathong station in Thung Song district.

The arrest came after accountants at V Corp Co, operator of PTT Pathong petrol station, discovered a shortfall of more than 20 million baht from the sale of petrol at the station between March 1 and July 22 this year.

They suspected something was going on and filed a complaint with Thung Song police chief Pol Col Khomsan Phuetsavanit, Daily News Online reported.

Police investigated and concluded some employees had been involved in a cunning scheme to steal takings from pump sales using bogus card sales slips.

Police later arrested four female employees at the station on July 29.

The four - Arpaporn Klindee, 26; Yuphin Churuen, 40, Janya Ruangsuk, 35 and Pornchanok Chumthongkham, 26 - denied all charges.

Ms Chuleeporn was later detained and allegedly confessed she had colluded with other staff to steal money from the sale of fuel. She did not give the names of her accomplices.

She told police her role was to find five credit cards for use in embezzling money from the station. The cards had been used to print slips from a credit card reader. After the receipts came out, they immediately cancelled each purchase.

The conspirators made false sales reports to the petrol station operator. The cash paid by customers went into their pockets, and the bogus slips showing purchases that had been later cancelled were submitted as proof of payment, according to police.

Ms Chuleeporn said she had given the credit cards to her co-conspirators - four in each workshift.

Each gang member had received 10% of the money embezzled from the sales of fuel, Ms Chuleeporn allegedly told police. 

Do you like the content of this article?
COMMENT (4)