An internal inquiry has concluded that a traffic policeman who stopped a Maserati driven by an actress for a traffic violation did not demand money, as alleged by the driver.
However, the woman may now find herself answering to officers in a Department of Special Investigation probe into tax evasion in the importing of luxury cars.
Traffic police launched a fact-finding probe following a recent posting on Instagram by actress Panita “Ning’’ Tumwattana, who accused a traffic police officer of attempting to get money from her in exchange for not issuing a traffic violation ticket.
Ning posted on her Instagram under the name “ningpanita’’, saying “I don’t know the direction, but had to drive a car to go to acting today. However, I was travelling in a wrong lane and changed to another lane and a police officer stopped my vehicle. I admitted it was right to stop those who violated a traffic rule. I said to the officer, issue a traffic ticket to me (I admitted I was wrong, not tried to cause trouble.). But the officer kept asking me questions and walking around. He even asked about the model of my car. This, I knew, meant he wanted money. Many people often say please help (when seeing police). I then said to him that I apologised for wasting his time. Issue a ticket to me, please. If I am wrong, I must abide by the rules. If the officer did not penalise me by taking my money there would have been more offenders. This would lead to selfish people in society. Did I speak harshly? It’s true. There are lots of good police, but people also hate police.’’
In response, the Traffic Police Sub-division 2 control and traffic management centre wrote on its Facebook page on Tuesday that the incident happened at 7.14am on Oct 21 when Pol Cpl Theerapong Khabchanthuek, a traffic policeman on duty, signalled a Maserati with Kor Thor 191 Bangkok licence plates travelling on Vibhavadi Rangsit to pull over for illegally switching lanes.
When asked to show her driving licence the driver produced her ID card, which showed her name. The officer notified her of the charge and checked on her vehicle with the Police Ticket Management system. The plates on the vehicle were registered to a BMW.
According to a source at the Department of Special Investigation, the plates on the car came up during an investigation into tax evasion in the importation of luxury vehicles by several large firms.
Police handling the case would issue a summons for the actress to hand over the Maserati for inspection, and produce import documents for the vehicle, the source said.
