Maximum time they can serve is 20 years
The Criminal Court on Wednesday handed down prison terms totalling 12,640 years each to a married couple who defrauded people into investing in a bogus savings scheme, with victims reporting cumulative losses of 1.3 billion baht.
The terms were commuted to 5,056 years because they confessed. All sentences are consecutive, but the law limits their total prison time to 20 years each.
There were nine defendants in this case – Wantanee Tippaveth, Methi Chinpha (Wantanee’s husband), Piya Kirisuwankul, Pornsawan Phu-in-oy, Thawalrat Tippaveth, Wilaiwan Hongprachasap, Nittaya Pinnok, Boripat Khemrat and Piyaseth Thisopha.
The court heard evidence that from March 9, 2019, to Oct 30, 2019, the nine defendants advertised on Facebook, inviting people to invest in a savings scheme offering a high return. The minimum investment was 1,000 baht. After nine months, investors would get a return of 930 baht plus the 1,000-baht capital investment – or 1,930 baht in total.
A total of 2,533 people joined the scheme. The total investment sum was 1.3 billion baht. It was alleged the nine defendants did not use the money for investment but shared it among themselves dishonestly.
The prosecutors charged all nine with multiple counts of fraud.
The court found two of the nine defendants guilty as charged – Wantanee and Methi. The seven others were acquitted for lack of evidence.
Initially, Wantanee and Methi were each given prison sentences totalling 12,640 years. These were reduced to 5,056 years because they had admitted to the offences.