The Kanchanaburi Court on Thursday returned 24 million baht in lottery prize-money to retired policeman Charoon Wimool, who won his court battle with teacher Preecha Kraikruan in June.
The court lifted the freeze on the money, held in a bank account of Pol Lt Charoon, 63, at his request.
Pol Lt Charoon, his wife and his lawyer were at the court, and so was his unhappy 51-year-old opponent, Mr Preecha.
The retired policeman won lottery first-prizes totalling 30 million baht with a set of five tickets on Nov 1, 2017.
The after-tax amount totalled about 29 million baht. He spent about 5 million baht. Then Mr Preecha filed suit, claiming ownership of the lottery tickets and leading to the court freezing the remaining 24 million baht in Mr Charoon's account pending settlement of the dispute.
On June 4, the Kanchanaburi Court declared Pol Lt Charoon the rightful owner of the winning tickets.
The court ruled there was no credible evidence that Mr Preecha was at Red City market in Muang district of Kanchanaburi on Oct 30, 2017, the day Pol Lt Charoon bought the lottery tickets from a vendor there.