A young woman who opened a bank account for a scam gang linked to a family tragedy in Samut Prakan has been arrested as she returned to Thailand from Cambodia through a border checkpoint in Sa Kaeo province.
Immigration and local police detained Suchada Chabutsri, 19, in the arrivals area shortly after she crossed the border from Cambodia’s Poipet township on Tuesday night, Pol Col Rung Thongmon, chief of Sa Kaeo immigration police, said on Wednesday.
Ms Suchada was wanted on an arrest warrant issued by the Samut Prakan Provincial Court on Aug 28 for collusion in fraud, putting false information into a computer system that caused damage to people, and opening a bank account and allowing others to use it or an electronic card for fraudulent purposes.
The young woman admitted to being the person named in the arrest warrant, Pol Col Rung said. She was held at Klong Luek police station in Sa Kaeo and would be transferred to Bang Kaeo police station in Samut Prakan province.
She was among six people wanted for owning mule accounts for a scam gang that defrauded a member of a family in Samut Prakan into sending them money. Driven desperate by debt, the husband killed his wife and two sons and then slashed his own throat and wrist in a failed attempt at suicide.
Pol Col Rung said the deaths were linked to the scam gang and drew media and public attention. Bang Kaeo police obtained warrants for the arrest of six people who owned mule accounts used by the gang.
Ms Suchada, a resident of Sa Kaeo’s Ta Phraya district, was one of the six suspects, the Sa Kaeo immigration chief said. Immigration investigators found out that she worked for the scam gang in Poipet. They kept a close watch on her and took her into custody when she returned to Thailand.
Police were hunting down the remaining suspects, Pol Col Rung said.
The tragedy unfolded at the family’s three-storey townhouse on a road behind Wat Nam Daeng in tambon Bang Kaeo of Bang Phli district and was reported to local police about 1am on Monday.
Police found the bodies of two boys, aged 9 and 13, and their mother Wipaporn Racha, 44. They had deep neck and body wounds. The father, Sanit Dokmai, 41, had admitted killing them in a phone call and had a deep slash across his neck and a cut wrist but survived and was taken to hospital.
Police said the tragic chain of events began when Mr Sanit was asked by his employer to act as his guarantor in refinancing a car. The employer did not repay the loan and filed for bankruptcy, saddling Mr Sanit with the debt.
His wife wanted to help, so she looked for a personal loan on social media and became a victim of a scam gang. She wanted a loan of about 100,000 baht but was tricked by scammers and ended up borrowing a total of 1.7 million baht from colleagues and other sources and transferred the money to the fraudsters.