Three arrested for allegedly selling fake negative Covid-19 certificates

The arrest of the three suspects was jointly announced at a press conference by Crime Suppression Subdivision 4 commander Pol Colonel Neti Wongkularb and Dr Naret Kratnairawiwong, director-general of the Health Service Support Department.

The three were identified as Ploy, 24, Veerapol, 26, and Munir, 22. Their surnames were withheld.

They were detained under an arrest warrant issued by the Criminal Court on March 3 and were charged with forging and using fake documents, pretending to be medical technicians, and providing services acquiring fake certificates as well as forging other labels that have been legally registered in the kingdom.

Neti said the three suspects took advantage of the situation to allegedly sell fake Covid-free certificates to Thais for use in applying for foreign trips to work abroad.

The three allegedly offered to sell the fake certificates for 890 baht each via the covid-lab.airsite.co.th website. They allegedly advertised that their customers could get the certificates in just 15 minutes without having to receive any RT-PCR test.

Neti said the suspects opened Line account PCR Test 890 for their clients to contact them. Each client was asked to provide his/her name, date of birth and the date they wanted on the certificate to show they had taken a RT-PCR test.

The clients received the certificates via Line, with the forged document under the name of PCT Laboratory Services Co Ltd.

The company has filed complaints with police against the three after it learned that its name was used on the fake certificates.

Neti said the suspects also sold forged education certificates via the gray-mulniti.com website. Clients could select whether they wanted a primary school certificate, secondary school one, a bachelor’s degree or master’s degree. They were charged between 1,500 and 7,000 baht for these fake documents.

The police officer said the suspects also offered to forge citizen identification cards, driving licences, government ID cards, land title deeds and vehicle registrations for their clients.

The suspects earned about 5 million baht from November 2021 to January 2022, Neti added.