Police will apply for arrest warrants for three scammers who allegedly forged the ID card of a victim to commit offences in many provinces.
Deputy national police chief Pol Gen Surachate Hakparn on Friday revealed that seven ID cards using the details and a picture of Phakin Sutpraphan, a 33-year-old owner of a coffee shop in tambon Lat Ya of Kanchanaburi’s Muang district, had been used to commit a number of offences.
Police have learnt the identities of all involved, he said, and will initially seek arrest warrants for three of the gang.
Mr Phakin was quoted as telling police that he previously applied for a loan using his phone. The process required him to take a picture of his face and show his ID card to conclude the authentication after he had paid an initial fee of 500 baht.
Having seen his application for a 50,000-baht loan rejected, he became concerned his ID card may have been forged to commit offences.
The scammers changed the name and ID number on the counterfeit card; however, Mr Phakin’s picture and address remained the same.
In September last year, a fake ID card with Mr Phakin’s name on it was used to dupe people into buying a non-existent motorbike on a second-hand vehicle sales page on Facebook.
He reported the case to Lat Ya police on Sept 7 last year.
Twelve warrants for Mr Phakin’s arrest were issued in many provinces such as Yala, Krabi and Chiang Mai, and many of his “victims” who had been duped by the scammers also visited him at his coffee shop.
On Thursday, Mr Phakin was summoned to Lat Ya police to give a statement to the Bureau of Registration Administration about the case.