A woman lecturer at a private university accused of duping 30 students into paying money for a non-existent summer language course in England has fled the country.
Assama Damrongphol, 33, was head of the English language department at Bangkok University’s Rangsit campus until she was recently dismissed.
She left for Hong Kong on HX-762 flight at 3.20am at Suvarnabhumi airport on Tuesday, Thai media reported.
It was reported that the woman fled the country after representatives of Bodindecha 2 School filed a complaint with Crime Suppression Division police against her for alleged embezzlement from their students.
Kittiphop Pawanatnunkorn, deputy director of the school, led school representatives to file the complaint. He told CSD investigators that 30 students had been fooled into paying 90,000 baht each to Ms Assama for a summer language course in England, from Oct 13-27.
After the payments were made, the woman postponed the trip, explaining that the accommodation was full. The school checked with the accommodation management in England and learned that she had not paid for the accommodation, Mr Kittiphop said.
The school tried to contact Ms Assama about the trip, and she kept postponing it. They had been unable to contact her since Oct 31, he said.
The 30 students were about 2.7 million baht out of pocket, in total.
Thai media reported that another group of at least 10 people had filed a complaint with the CSD against Ms Assama, alleging she frauidulently persuaded them into investing in a company to send students to study abroad under an exchange programme, and to arrange summer courses in England.
They complained they were defrauded of amounts ranging from 600,000 baht to 2 million baht.
Thai media reported that the university had dismissed Ms Assama after the alleged fraud was exposed..
