A Government Lottery Office (GLO) employee and a vendor have been sentenced to 1,410 years in prison each for swindling 33 people in a lottery pyramid scheme.
However, the pair will serve just a fraction of that time, as the maximum jail term they can serve by law for such a crime is limited to 20 years.
The Criminal Court yesterday found Plengsri Sripongkul, 43, a GLO employee, and Atchara Thonghum, 40, a lottery ticket vendor, guilty of 282 counts of fraud. Each count carries a jail term of five years.
The court sentenced the two defendants to 1,410 years in prison each and acquitted a third defendant, Luesak Chomchart, 40, also a GLO employee.
The prosecution claimed the defendants and several accomplices who are still at large swindled 33 people in a lottery pyramid scheme between 2002 and December 2008.
The defendants claimed they had received a quota from the GLO to purchase large numbers of lottery tickets.
Those wanting to invest in the lottery business were promised high returns.
A total of 33 people were duped, causing about 126 million baht in damage.