The Appeal Court yesterday reduced the prison sentence given to convicted embezzler and former chairman of the Klongchan Credit Union Cooperative (KCUC) Supachai Srisupa-aksorn to seven years.
The court initially reduced the lower court's sentence from 16 years to 14 years, and then halved that because he chose to confess.
The court declined to suspend the sentence because of the seriousness of the offence and the damage caused to KCUC depositors, meaning he will remain behind bars.
The case against Supachai was brought to the Criminal Court in May 2015. In March 2016 the court sentenced him to 32 years in jail for siphoning off 22.13 million baht from the cooperative on eight occasions from April 10 to Oct 8, 2013.
He pleaded guilty to embezzlement in violation of Sections 352, 353 and 354 of the Criminal Code despite initially denying his guilt during police interrogations. The lower court reduced the sentence to 16 years due to his confession. Supachai, 60, was yesterday taken from Bang Kwang Central Prison, where he has been held without bail since April 2, 2016, to hear the Appeal Court's decision.
He had directed his lawyer to repay 27 million baht to the KCUC, and on these grounds appealed for a lighter sentence. The media were not allowed to take photos of him when he arrived at court.
The court said it saw no reason to suspend his sentence. His actions damaged the KCUC, which was forced to undergo full financial rehabilitation.
It also undermined the public's trust in the cooperative, even though he later repaid the money.
The Department of Special Investigation has brought several charges against Supachai in relation to the 12 billion baht scandal, including three for embezzlement, three for money laundering and one for public fraud.
