SURAT THANI — A Romanian tourist’s lost credit card led to unauthorized withdrawals totaling 280,000 baht ($8,600) while she was traveling from Koh Phangan in Surat Thani province to Phuket, authorities reported.
According to Police Colonel Naruwat Phuttharo, Surat Thani Immigration Police Commander, Ms. Cristina, a Romanian national, filed a complaint at Saku Police Station in Phuket seeking assistance. Phuket police then coordinated with Mueang Surat Thani Police Station and immigration authorities to investigate the case.
Police Lieutenant General Phanumas Boonyalak, Commander of the Immigration Bureau, ordered Surat Thani Immigration to expedite the investigation as the incident damaged Thailand’s tourism reputation.
Investigators discovered that the person withdrawing money from the woman’s account was a tour bus driver. Police subsequently arrested 34-year-old Channarong, a tour bus operator. CCTV footage revealed that the suspect used a white car to make withdrawals from ATMs around Surat Thani city area 14 times, totaling 280,000 baht.
Officers gathered evidence and obtained a search warrant from the Surat Thani Provincial Court to search Channarong’s residence on Talad Mai Road in Mueang District, Surat Thani. They seized 280,000 baht in cash along with the clothes the suspect wore during the incidents. Channarong confessed that after finding the credit card on the bus with its PIN code attached, he tested the card and, upon discovering it worked, proceeded to make multiple cash withdrawals.
Initially, authorities charged the suspect with theft, misappropriation of another person’s document in a manner likely to cause damage, unlawful possession of another person’s electronic card, and unauthorized use of another person’s electronic card for goods, services, other debts, or cash withdrawals in a manner likely to cause damage.
Police have transferred the suspect to investigators at Saku Police Station in Phuket for legal proceedings, after which the money will be returned to the tourist.
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