Bangkok Uni professor sacked after ripping off dozens on English language courses in the UK

[webfact]

Bangkok Uni professor sacked after ripping off dozens on English language courses in the UK

 

 

The head of the English department at Bangkok University has been sacked after she sought investment in English programs in the UK. 

 

And 30 parents who paid for courses for their children will go to police to say they were conned out of 90,000 baht each. 

 

In total losses of 20 million baht have been reported by investors.

 

The English professor - named only as Assama, 33 - is in hiding. 

 

Yesterday Sombat Seewong, 44, and ten victims who invested money with Assama went to crime suppression police and met with Lt-Col Mongkhon Phromsopha. 

 

Sombat said he met Assama and the pair did a land deal in which Assama was up front and honest. 

 

Confident that he could do business with her he did not hesitate when she suggested investing one million baht in a project to take secondary pupils and university students to study in the UK. 

 

When she could not be contacted he realized he had been conned and there were many other victims who had invested between 600,000 and two million each. 

 

He also discovered that 30 parents at a well known school had lost 90,000 baht each in travel and study fees for their children. 

 

The course they signed up for was for the latest school holidays and was due to run from 13th to 27th October.

 

Complaints have been made in various police precincts about the matter and the parents at the school are preparing to go to the cops as a group. 

 

Meanwhile Bangkok University said that Assama has been sacked. They said that her activities were not the responsibility of the university. 

 

Source: Daily News

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2018-11-13

[petermik]

I find it hard to believe a Thai would "rip off" other Thai,s............

[PatOngo]

OK students, the English word for today is "Thief".....  Person who steals.

[Kasset Tak]

Here we can't even take up collections for the local temple (1-100Baht/person) without the director sign a letter stating that it's OK...
But hey, it's a difference when you have gullible rich parents in Bangkok compared to the hard working farmers counting every Baht they spend, like the parents of most of my students...

[balo]

They must have been filthy rich the parents if they can pay 1 million baht for a student course. Also stupid. 

Somehow I don't feel pity for them....

 

 

[trainman34014]

They just can't resist cheating and scamming their own kind or Foreigners whenever they get the chance.  They see no shame in it , they just think they are being clever and they will always get away with it and become as rich as the Elite in a few years.   They are helped along the way by people who have far more money than they have brains.

 

My Wife's ex Boss, a Woman Administrator in a leading Chiang Mai Hospital, ripped off more than a hundred Hospital Staff over a period of 7 years by constantly 'inviting them' to join various 'business opportunities' that she and her fairy tale partners were in to.   She would pressure staff to join up by telling them she would make their life easier at work with preferred shifts or by using nasty tactics if they wouldn't hand over any money.  In all she extorted around 5 million Baht which she blew on new cars and a lavish lifestyle.  When caught she had nothing to pay back with and she got just six months behind bars, so when punishment is so lenient it is small wonder that this type of thing just keeps on happening.

[Rimmer]

Off topic posts about Mr Trump removed

[marcusarelus]

1 hour ago, balo said:

They must have been filthy rich the parents if they can pay 1 million baht for a student course. Also stupid. 

Somehow I don't feel pity for them....

Trying to help your children get an education is an admirable trait regardless if you are Thai or not. 

[hotchilli]

3 hours ago, petermik said:

I find it hard to believe a Thai would "rip off" other Thai,s............

Jinga !!

[Jeremy50]

13 minutes ago, marcusarelus said:

Trying to help your children get an education is an admirable trait regardless if you are Thai or not. 

It's up to your child if they actually WANT to get educated, and really learn, or just copy and stare stupidly into their phone, in which case you might as well throw your money into the village pond.

[marcusarelus]

14 minutes ago, Jeremy50 said:

It's up to your child if they actually WANT to get educated, and really learn, or just copy and stare stupidly into their phone, in which case you might as well throw your money into the village pond.

If education was up to children we wouldn't need teachers now would we?  It is up to parents to motivate children and provide the means to become educated.  I was born into a world without TV's and my parents were just as worried about Television as you seem to be about phones.  In fact most children know more about the world through the availability of information than the old timers ever did.  Human knowledge used to double every century soon it will double ever 12 hours.  Wake up!

[marcusarelus]

22 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

Jinga !!

You must be blind.  Have you never seen a Thai prison? 

[lemonjelly]

2 hours ago, balo said:

They must have been filthy rich the parents if they can pay 1 million baht for a student course. Also stupid. 

Somehow I don't feel pity for them....

 

 

It was 90,000 for the course, the other higher amounts were investments into the scheme which would have of course been run for profit.

Edited November 13, 2018 by lemonjelly

[connda]

Intellectual property infringement is the highest form of flattery! 

[Baerboxer]

Just found out today the head teacher / school director at my son's school has been sacked for stealing school funds. Apparently fled to some far corner of Thailand. 

 

She was always seen as a good school head, well respected and doing good things for the school. 

 

Just shows.

[DavisH]

6 hours ago, balo said:

They must have been filthy rich the parents if they can pay 1 million baht for a student course. Also stupid. 

Somehow I don't feel pity for them....

 

 

Kids go to the US for a year + homestay and study there in a school for less than that. 

[Torrens54]

5 hours ago, Jeremy50 said:

It's up to your child if they actually WANT to get educated, and really learn, or just copy and stare stupidly into their phone, in which case you might as well throw your money into the village pond.

Oooohaaa, got a bit of a twist in your Panties today have we, poor didums! 

[webfact]

School files fraud complaint with CSD after allegedly being duped by trip ‘organiser’

By Kornkamon Aksorndech 
The Nation

 

 

A school deputy director on Tuesday filed a fraud complaint with the Crime Suppression Division (CSD) against a former lecturer at a Bangkok university after the school had hired her to arrange a 15-day summer-camp trip to the UK for 30 students in October, but later realised they had been duped.

 

The deputy director said the school had chosen 33-year-old female suspect Asama Damrongpol’s apparently credible company to arrange the trip for a cheap price of Bt90,000 per student. 

 

After they were later unable to contact her at her company office or at home, and the trip did not take place, the school found out from the university, where Asama had claimed to be working as an English Language Department head, that she had already ended her employment there.

 

It was at this point that they decided to file a complaint with Bung Kum police station in Bangkok. 

 

The school executive said what was more worrying now was that some of the students’ personal documents, which they had given to the suspect to proceed with passport and visa applications, would turn out to be used in securing illegal loans. 

 

At least one student’s document has reportedly used in borrowing Bt1 million from a money-lender, the executive said.

 

The complaint-lodging move by the school executive follows a complaint filed on Monday afternoon with the CSD by Asama’s business partner, 44-year-old Sombat Sihawong.

 

Sombat reportedly paid Bt1 million to invest in her company but, before he could get any return on the investment, he learned about others who were allegedly being lured into investing Bt600,000 to Bt2 million each in the business.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30358464

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-11-14

[happy chappie]

9 hours ago, Baerboxer said:

Just found out today the head teacher / school director at my son's school has been sacked for stealing school funds. Apparently fled to some far corner of Thailand. 

 

She was always seen as a good school head, well respected and doing good things for the school. 

 

Just shows.

Yes it's a very common fault of Thais to have sticky little fingers.i was told the private school around the corner sells all the books to. The students.i thought at first oh that's good they must buy them in bulk and the parents all get to save money.nope how wrong can I be.they charge well over the top of what you can buy in the shops.makes me laugh that all the farang kid themselves that sending their kids to this private school will give them a better education.one of my tenants worked there for one week and walked out in disgust at the whole charade of the system and quality of teaching.

[marcusarelus]

34 minutes ago, happy chappie said:

Yes it's a very common fault of Thais to have sticky little fingers.i was told the private school around the corner sells all the books to. The students.i thought at first oh that's good they must buy them in bulk and the parents all get to save money.nope how wrong can I be.they charge well over the top of what you can buy in the shops.makes me laugh that all the farang kid themselves that sending their kids to this private school will give them a better education.one of my tenants worked there for one week and walked out in disgust at the whole charade of the system and quality of teaching.

When I was in college had to buy the books from the professor who taught the course in America too.  However, having said that Thailand spends a lot on education and deserves someone from Singapore to run the system.  I don't see it as a face thing.  Thailand employed people from other countries to design the airport and mass transit system in Bangkok what would be wrong with hiring a group from Singapore to run the education system. 

Edited November 14, 2018 by marcusarelus

[Colabamumbai]

38 minutes ago, marcusarelus said:

When I was in college had to buy the books from the professor who taught the course in America too.  However, having said that Thailand spends a lot on education and deserves someone from Singapore to run the system.  I don't see it as a face thing.  Thailand employed people from other countries to design the airport and mass transit system in Bangkok what would be wrong with hiring a group from Singapore to run the education system. 

The loss of face.

[happy chappie]

41 minutes ago, marcusarelus said:

When I was in college had to buy the books from the professor who taught the course in America too.  However, having said that Thailand spends a lot on education and deserves someone from Singapore to run the system.  I don't see it as a face thing.  Thailand employed people from other countries to design the airport and mass transit system in Bangkok what would be wrong with hiring a group from Singapore to run the education system. 

Totally agree but Thais will not have outsiders interfering unless its cave rescues,boat recoveries,building railway etc.when it comes to education that don't count.any other country for example Canada,Australia and so on have campaigns to recruit teachers,nurses and so forth but this is TIT and done their way.

[rkidlad]

Mate of mine works for a good university here in the prathom part of the school. He said the old head who'd been there for a while was absolutely rinsing the budget and fees coming in. Started off small and just grew and grew. Everyone from the head teachers to the cleaners knew what was going on. It was shameless. The head was eventually let go with some face-saving diplomacy, and no one having to admit they had been fired or had done any firing. The old head has now opened her own school with some of her friends. 

 

Mate says she could have kept stealing 'til retirement if she hadn't been so outrageously greedy. Saddest part is she now has her own school, and she probably walks around thinking she's better than others and she's never done anything wrong.