Crime Suppression Division police have arrested two members of a scam gang tricking people into handing over backhoes and trucks worth 77 million baht in total in Bangkok and Surat Thani.
Pongsak Thiampak, 26, of Surat Thani and Walaiporn Sappalek, 28, of Bangkok, were apprehended separately, Pol Col Jirapop Puridet, caretaker CSD commander, told a media briefing on Thursday.
The pair were wanted on arrest warrants issued by the Criminal Court for colluding in public fraud.
It followed numerous complaints to the CSD by people duped into handing over their backhoes and trucks, each worth 3-4 million baht, Pol Col Jirapop said.
Gang members had approached the complainants offering to take over the payments on the vehicles.
After the vehicles were signed over to them the gang failed to amend the hire purchase contracts with the original finance companies, which then sued the victims for non-payment. The gang left town and kept the vehicles.
CSD investigators found out there were three people involved in the fraud. They subsequently arrested Mr Pongsak at a house in Phun Phin district, Surat Thani and Ms Walaiporn at a house in Bangkok’s Min Buri district. Gang leader Vorathep Boonthorn remained at large, Pol Col Jirapop said.
The investigators concluded that Mr Vorathep had asked Mr Pongsak to approach potential victims, posing as a representative of a firm interested in buying up the down payments made on backhoes and trucks from people having difficulty making the installments.
After the victims fell into their trap, Mr Pongsak then forwarded the documents to Ms Walaiporn, who claimed to be the employee responsible for amending the vehicle purchase contracts with the finance firms.
After the original down payments were paid back to the victims, the gang took the vehicles and vanished. The vehicles were found parked in an area in Kanchanaburi province pending their resale to customers in a neighbouring country for 1-2 million baht each, Pol Col Jirapop said.
The gang caused damage worth about 77 million baht to the victims, he said.