Gun-theft cop sentenced to 270 years

Pol Snr Sgt Maj Chaowalit Phumkhachorn (seated) is arrested in Nong Khai on Oct 20 last year for the theft of dozens of guns from the Pak Kret police station in Nonthaburi. (Photo supplied)
Pol Snr Sgt Maj Chaowalit Phumkhachorn (seated) is arrested in Nong Khai on Oct 20 last year for the theft of dozens of guns from the Pak Kret police station in Nonthaburi. (Photo supplied)

A police officer convicted of stealing more than 150 guns over a period of two years from a Nonthaburi police station has been sentenced to 270 years in jail.

Chaowalit Phumkhachorn, a former crime suppression officer attached to the Pak Kret station, was sentenced to five years for each of 28 counts of possession of firearms; and six life terms for offences related to the firearms trade.

Taking into account his confession, the court reduced the total sentence to 270 years, but the maximum jail term by law is 50 years.

The court also ordered him to return all the stolen guns or pay 1.34 million baht in compensation to authorities.

Over a two-year period, Chaowalit falsified documents to obtain the guns, many of which had been signed out from his own station. He sold 47 of them to outsiders and pawned another 115.

He then fled and was later arrested in Nong Khai on Oct 20 last year. Some of the stolen guns were recovered following searches of premises in Bangkok and Nonthaburi. Others were returned by people who feared legal action for possession of stolen weapons.

The discovery that large numbers of guns had gone missing from a police station without anyone apparently noticing prompted calls for more checks of police weapons storage facilities.

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Vocabulary

  • apparently: based only on what you have heard or think, not on what you are certain is true; seemingly - ตามที่ได้รู้มา
  • compensation: money that someone receives because something bad has happened to them - เงินชดเชย
  • confession: admitting that you have done something wrong or illegal - การสารภาพผิด
  • count: each crime someone is accused of - คดี
  • court: the place where legal trials take place and where crimes, etc. are judged - ศาล
  • falsified: changed in order to deceive people - ปลอมแปลงเพื่อหลอกลวง
  • flee (past form: fled) (verb): to leave a place or person quickly because you are afraid of possible danger or consequences - หนี
  • imprisonment: the punishment of being put in prison - การจำคุก
  • life imprisonment: a punishment of life in prison - จำคุกตลอดชีวิต
  • offence: a crime or illegal activity for which there is a punishment - การกระทำความผิด
  • outsider: someone who does not belong to a particular group or organization - บุคคลภายนอก
  • pawn (verb): to leave an object with a pawn shop in exchange for money. The object is returned to the owner if he or she pays back the money within an agreed period of time. If not, it can be sold. - จำนำ
  • possession: having or owning something - การครอบครอง
  • recover (verb): to get something back that has been lost or has had problems - to get something that was lost, stolen, or owed นำกลับคืน, กู้
  • suppression: stopping an activity from happening, in this case, criminal activity  - การปราบปราม
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