NAKHON SAWAN: The owner of a karaoke shop in Lat Yao district was arrested when local officials raided the premises in the early hours of Wednesday and found 14 scantily glad teenage girls serving drinks, two of them under 18-years-old.
Officials from the Department of Provincial Administration's law enforcement operations centre entered the Ran Theederm karaoke shop at Moo 11 village in Lat Yao shortly after midnight, following complaints the owner employed scantily clad girls aged under 18 to serve alcohol and entertain guests.
Ronnarong Thipsiri, director of the operations centre, and Lat Yao district chief Watcharaporn Taenmee, led the raid.
They found 14 girls working in the shop, serving male customers. Two of them were under age - one 17 and one 15.
Ms Suwansa Kaewphinit, 43, owner of the shop, was detained.
Officials said the shop was previously run by Ms Suwansa's husband Nithiwat Rotjanasukkaset, 42, who is serving a prison sentence. He was playing with a gun in the shop in January last year, and it accidentally discharged and killed a 15-year-old girl.
Ms Suwansa was charged with operating the nightspot without a licence, selling alcohol after legal hours, encouraging underaged girls to act inappropriately, and other related offences.
She could face an additional charges of human trafficking, because six of the 14 girls were believed to have been trafficked, according to the DPA's law enforcement operations centre.
Officials raid Ran Theederm karaoke shop in Lat Yao district, Nakhon Sawan in the early hours of Wednesday and find 14 young girls, two aged 15 and one aged 17, are entertaining guests inside the shop. The shop owner is arrested and charged. (Photos: The Department of Provincial Administration's law enforcement operation centre Facebook)