NAKHON RATCHASIMA - Jumpol Manmai, a former grand chamberlain for security of the Royal Household Bureau, has been sentenced to six years in jail, reduced to three because he confessed.

Jumpol, 66, and Pol Maj Gen Pongdech Prommichit, 57, deputy commissioner of Provincial Police Region 5, were taken to the Nakhon Ratchasima court on Friday afternoon to be indicted. Public prosecutors charged them with encroaching on a national forest and abuse of power under Section 157 of the Criminal Code.

Jumpol, who was also former deputy national police chief, confessed to the charges and gave up the right to a lawyer and to fight the charges. But Pol Maj Gen Pongdej denied them and would fight the charges.

The court decided to have the prosecutors file separate charges against Pol Maj Gen Pongdech within seven days.

The court then ruled Jumpol guilty of abuse of power and sentenced him to four years in jail. For the encroachment charge, it handed down a two-year jail term, totalling six years. Since Jumpol confessed, the jail term was halved with no cause for suspension.

He was also told to remove the structures from the encroached park land and paid 892,000 baht in damages to authorities.

Jumpol was then taken to be imprisoned at a special Bangkok prison after the ruling. 

Earlier, the pair, together with their wives and three others, were accused of encroachment on almost 13 rai in Thap Lan National Park in Wang Nam Khieo district, Nakhon Ratchasima province but the prosecutors charged only two of them on Friday.

Jumpol was earlier fired by the Royal Household Bureau and stripped of his police general rank.