116 suspects face action for ‘stealing money’ from travel scheme
The 116 suspects who allegedly defrauded the government’s “Rao Tiew Duay Kan” (We Travel Together) scheme were taken to face prosecution at the Crime Suppression Division (CSD) headquarters in Bangkok on Monday morning.
Pol Lt-General Chayapol Chatchaiyadech, assistant commissioner-general of the Royal Thai Police, said the 116 suspects were hunted down after the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) filed a complaint with the CSD.
The suspects allegedly teamed up with tourism operators to falsely withdraw funds from the subsidy. The government has lost close to 100 million baht to fraudsters in Phuket and Chaiyaphum alone.
Chayapol said TAT has reported that some 1,000 people are involved in fraud that has cost the country more than 1 billion baht. Police officers have been deployed to verify the cases.
