A runaway groom who abandoned his bride on their wedding day in Prachin Buri province was not a soldier serving in the South, as he had claimed to be, a Royal Thai Army spokeswoman said on Friday.
Col Sirichan Ngathong, deputy army spokeswoman, said the man who claimed to be a sergeant major with a Ranger unit in the deep South, was not a soldier at all.
"Sgt Maj Ek Suwannahong" was not listed in the army’s personnel database, Col Sirichan said.
The imposter failed to turn up for the wedding at his fiancée's house in Kabin Buri district on May 1. The groom abandoned his appalled bride, relatives and guests, who had about 50 tables laid out for a Chinese wedding banquet.
The forsaken 40-year-old bride, Namthip, was adamant on Thursday that she would not reconcile and demanded her ex-fiance pay the cost of the wedding. She had filed a report with Na Di police and demanded compensation of 271,079 baht from "Sgt Maj Ek".
The couple had met through an on online platform in December last year. The man later asked her to marry him.
Her family had asked for a dowry of 200,000 baht and three-baht weight of gold worth about 93,000 baht.
She said he told her that he was a paramilitary ranger with the rank of sergeant major assigned to the far South. However, she had never seen him in a ranger's uniform.