CHON BURI: An Iranian man has been arrested and charged with exchanging a fake 500-euro banknote for Thai baht, Pol Lt Col Piyapong Ensan, a Pattaya tourist police investigator, said on Sunday.
The arrest was made on Sunday after Saichon Poonko, 40, an employee of a money exchange company in tambon Nong Prue, Bang Lamung district, filed a complaint with Pattaya police that on the night of June 7 an Iranian man came to her outlet with a 500-euro note and exchanged it for 17,540 baht.
Mrs Saichon said she later checked the banknote and found it to be fake.
With help from the footage from surveillance cameras in the area, the Iranian man was arrested on Sunday morning. He was identified as Ali Ismaeli Hossanabadi, 39.
He was charged with intentionally using a fake note. The Iranian denied the charge, saying that he got the banknote from running a business in his home country.
