A former bank clerk has been arrested on a charge of swindling bank customers out of more than 10 million baht through a fraudulent loan procedure.
Crime Suppression Division police apprehended Phanuphan Phonwichit at a house in Muang district of Roi Et on Wednesday night.
Mr Phanuphan, 53, was wanted on an arrest warrant issued by the Roi Et Provincial Court on charges of public fraud, falsifying documents and malfeasance causing damage to other people.
Police said that in 2013, while working in the credit section of a bank in Roi Et, he persuaded nursing friends into investing about 7 million baht of their money through him. He promised high returns that did not eventuate.
In 2019, Phanuphan moved to a new job, as assistant to a credit manager at a bank branch in nearby Yasothon province.
He allegedly told bank customers of a government scheme to provide loans to people. Interested customers were told to give him their documents, and he would handle the loan procedure for them.
According to police, he used those documents to apply for loans for himself, and frittered away the money. The people who trusted him lost more than 10 million baht between them. Some were bankrupted.
His victims had filed complaints at Pho Thong police station in Roi Et and Kham Khuen Kaew police station in Yasothon province. Mr Phanuphan fled arrest.
CSD investigators tracked him to a house in Muang district of Roi Et, and moved in on him on Wednesday night. He denied the charges and refused to make a statement.
The man was handed over to Phon Thong police for legal action, and was being held in custody.