The "axe aunts" who smashed a parked pickup truck blocking their driveway near Rama IX park in Bangkok last year have been given a suspended two-month jail term and fined 12,000 baht each.
The Phra Khanong Court handed down the sentences on Ratanachat Saengyoktrakan, 58, and Maneerat Saengpatarachote, 62, on Thursday.
Their lawyer Ananchai Chaidet said the court originally sentenced them to three months in jail and a fine of 18,000 baht but the punishment was commuted by one-third because the defendants cooperated.
The imprisonment was suspended for two years as the court viewed the defendants had acted out of pent-up anger and tension because vehicles had been parked on their driveway for a long time. Besides, their crime was not serious, they had placed 50,000 baht with the court as compensation for the damage done to the pickup truck and they had never been imprisoned, he said.
The "axe" incident happened in front of the defendants' luxury house in Seri Villa housing estate close to the Rama IX public park in Prawet district, Bangkok, in the morning of Feb 18, 2018.
The defendants' family was about to leave their house when they found the driveway was blocked by a pickup truck. It was reported that one of the family members honked a horn for half an hour but the truck driver did not show up to move her vehicle.
The two defendants subsequently took an axe and a spade from their house and started smashing the truck with the tools in full view of vendors and customers at markets, as well as visitors to the public park nearby.
The women later filed a complaint against the operators of the big markets in the housing estate and later the markets were closed despite vendors' call for sympathy.
In November last year, Ratchaneekorn Lertwassana, 38, who parked the pickup truck in front of their house was sentenced to 15 days in jail, suspended for one year, and fined 5,000 baht for causing a public disturbance.
