The director of Prawet district office has been fined 5,000 baht for failure to comply with a years-old court order to solve the problem caused by markets operating around the house of two women who last month angrily damaged a parked vehicle blocking their driveway.
The Central Administrative Court on Wednesday ordered Bangkok governor Aswin Kwanmuang and Prawet district director Thanasit Metpanmuang to comply with the court injunction issued on Aug 1, 2013.
The court also ordered Mr Thanasit to pay the 5,000-baht fine within 30 days.
The court was ruling on the suit filed by Boonsri Saengyoktrakarn and three other family members against the Bangkok governor, the Prawet district chief, the Prawet district office and the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, for failing to address their problems with markets operating around their home at Seri Villa, adjoining Suan Luang in Prawet district.
The Saekyoktrakarn family submitted that their house was in a designated residential area. They were adversely affected by the operations of flea markets that caused air, noise and water pollution.
They had earlier filed a complaint with the district office and the three other parties, but no action had been taken to address their problem.
On Aug 1, 2013, the court granted legal protection to Ms Boonsri and her family. However, in the years since the injunction was issued nothing had been done.
The dispute caught public attention when two Saengyoktrakarn sisters attacked a pickup truck parked across the driveway entrance to their house on Feb 18.
The two sisters - Ratanachart Saengyoktrakarn, 61, and Ranee Saengyoktrakarn, 57 - were shown in video posted on social media vigorously pounding the pickup with an axe and a metal pole.
Ms Ratanachat filed a complaint against the truck's owner, market-goer Rachanikorn Lertwasana, 37, accusing her of causing trouble.
On Feb 18, their family's vehicles could not leave the house because the pickup was blocking the way. It was far from the first time they had been inconvenienced in this way. It was a frequent occurrence.
The two sisters said they had waited for about an hour for the owner to return, sounding their car horn for the second half hour, before finally losing their collective temper and attacking the vehicle.
The Bangkok Council announced on Monday this week that a committee of inquiry had found all five markets at Seri Villa were operating illegally. The operators had not sought permits since 2008.
It laid the blame on 20 city officials, including Mr Thanasit and his three predecessors dating back to 2008.
The committee found that although Prawet district office had fined the market operators and made arrests, action had been taken at varying degrees of strictness and the markets continued to operate.