SONGKHLA - An angry Australian man took a direct flight to Thailand to file charges against his former Thai girlfriend, accusing her of defrauding him of more than 15 million baht (US$500,000), police said.
Pol Lt Col Surapong Kittithirangura, deputy chief of Hat Yai police station, said Malcolm McCurley, a 43-year-old onion farmer from Australia, came with his lawyer and interpreter to the station on Tuesday to take legal action against Boontip Choochuay, 29.
Mr McCurley told police that Ms Boontip worked for him at his farm in 2009. She was diligent and had a friendly personality, he fell in love with her and they planned to get married.
Australian Malcolm McCurley files charges against his former Thai girlfriend at Hat Yai police station on Tuesday. (Photo by Vichayant Boonchote)
According to his statement, the woman later returned to Songkhla and then tricked him into opening a company, offering summer courses in Australia to Thai students. The company was called Student Link and was based in Songkhla's Hat Yai district.
The plantiff said Ms Boontip, who was the only person in charge of Student Link, asked him to transfer about 12 million baht to her bank account between Sept 16, 2009 and Nov 26, 2012. She told him that the money would be used to cover the company's operating expenses.
At the end of last year Ms Boontip called him, asking him to come to Thailand and meet her parents so they could then get engaged. She asked him to pay a bride price of 2,999,999 baht and he accepted. After their engagement, he returned to Australia alone.
The Australian said he later learned that Ms Boontip was conning him. She had begun distancing herself from him since the beginning of this year. She did not answer his phone calls and when he returned to Songkhla she refused to see him.
He also sent his lawyer to check on Student Link and found out that the company had been closed late last year. Another company under Ms Boontip's name was then set up to smuggle Thai workers to Australia posing as tourists or exchange students, he added.
"What hurts me the most is to know that Ms Boontip, the woman I loved and planned to spend my life with, deceived me into getting engaged to her, and that I completely believed her," Mr McCurley told police.
He said he also discovered that his former fiance used his money to buy a house and a car and that she had used similar schemes to fool other foreign men.
"I decided to fly straight from Australia with all the evidence, documents, financial transactions and photos of Ms Boontip and myself to take legal action against Ms Boontip," he said.
He said an Australian television programme planned to do a news story on him as a warning to foreign men "not to fall victim to Thai women".
Pol Lt Col Surapong said police had filed embezzlement and fraud charges against Ms Boontip. If she failed to answer the summons three times, she would be arrested.
Malcolm McCurley, left, and Boontip Choochuay
Boontip Choochuay