A 39-year-old man who claimed to be an architect and allegedly extorted students for money was arrested on fraud and extortion charges near Chatuchak Park in Bangkok, police said.
Thammasak Yuktawan, aka "Architect Tum", had two active arrest warrants, one issued by the Min Buri Criminal Court on Dec 27 last year for alleged extortion and the other by the Buri Ram provincial court on Oct 7, 2022, for fraud.
Police spent five days locating the suspect after he allegedly extorted money from a victim who believed the suspect was armed and gave him the money, police said.
The suspect, known to target students, was spotted in the Chatuchak area at around 8.30pm on Thursday by police officers who disguised themselves as students. He was immediately nabbed.
Mr Thammasak told police that he did not extort money but merely "asked" for it. He admitted he had been doing this since 2022 because he could not find a job and said that much of the money was spent on online gambling.
Pol Maj Gen Teeradet Thamsuthee, commander of the Metropolitan Police Bureau's investigation division, said the case caught the division's attention because the suspect primarily targeted students.
He said it was believed there were more than 200 victims in the past two years as he went from province to province, but most did not file complaints with police because the amount of money extorted was relatively small. The alleged amounts ranged from a few hundred to several thousand baht, he said.