Crime Suppression Division police have arrested four people for using an inheritance scam to swindle a woman who had just sold land plots in Nonthaburi out of 232 million baht.
Three women and one man were apprehended separately at their houses in Ratchaburi, Nonthaburi and Suphan Buri, said CSD chief Jirabhop Bhuridej during a media conference on Tuesday.
The suspects were Ms Supit Nimitniwat, 61; Ms Phanita Nartpairin, 52; Chaichana Chantra, 45; and Ms Marisa Sombankruai, 42. They were wanted on arrest warrants issued by the Nakhon Pathom provincial court on fraud charges.
The arrests of the suspects followed a complaint by Ms Panisara Thanasamarnchok, 59, who fell victim to the gang, said Pol Maj Gen Jirabhop.
Ms Panisara, a wealthy woman who obtained hundreds of millions of baht from the sale of Nonthaburi land plots which were in areas earmarked for the construction of the MRT Purple Line, had been introduced to Ms Supit, the first suspect, in 2016.
Ms Supit had lied to the victim, saying Ms Phanita was about to inherit 1 billion baht from a doctor who had been killed in a bomb blast in Yala province. Ms Phanita was the only heir but she had no money to pay fees totalling 235 million baht.
The four suspects plotted a plan which involved Ms Supita borrowing 50 million baht from the victim for Ms Phanita. Ms Supita kept persuading the victim, saying that Ms Phanita would give her an extra 300 million baht in return aside from the 50-million-baht principal.
Ms Panisara made two transfers of 520,000 baht each to Ms Supita. The gang then issued a cashier cheque to the victim as a loan guarantee.
But Ms Panisara had some doubts and Ms Supit asked her to contact Mr Chaichana, another suspect pretending to be a lieutenant colonel overseeing the 1-billion-baht will.
The bogus army officer then phoned the victim and confirmed the inheritance story. He also took her to see Ms Marisa, another gang member claiming to be an army lieutenant, to back up the story.
The victim then transferred more money to the gang. She made a total of 597 money transfers of 232,910,617 baht before finding out the truth, said Pol Maj Gen Jirabhop.
The victim filed a complaint with Muang district police station in Nakhon Pathom. CSD investigators later helped track down the four suspects.
All suspects confessed to the crime. They said they had divided the money and used it to buy assets such as cars, houses and land plots.
The CSD investigators were in the process of confiscating the assets from the gang. All suspects were handed over to police in Nakhon Pathom’s Muang police station for legal action, said the CSD chief.
