Former school director gets 192 years in prison over school lunch scandal

[snoop1130]

 

The former director of a kindergarten, in Thailand’s southern province of Nakhon Si Thammarat, has been sentenced to 192 years in prison, without suspension, for cheating children out of their free lunch funding, by providing them with just rice noodles and fish sauce.

 

The court found Somchao Sitthichen, former director of Ban Tha Mai School in Tha Chana District guilty on 77 counts of fraud and sentenced him to five years on each count, or 385 years in total.

 

Due to his confession, however, the sentence was commuted to 192 years and six months.  Nonetheless, according to the Criminal Code, the maximum imprisonment permissible by law is 50 years.

 

Full Story: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/former-school-director-gets-192-years-in-prison-over-school-lunch-scandal/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2022-10-21

 

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[Iamfalang]

9 minutes ago, snoop1130 said:

providing them with just rice noodles and fish sauce.

Your entire life's mission should be helping children, yet you starve them to make more money.

Let's hope the kids had money to buy all the junk sold around school, and I have a feeling this wasn't the only thing this guy did and the length of bad deeds is long.

 

50 years seems harsh, but not when we are talking about children (77 counts, maybe 77 kids?  probably hundreds)

[ikke1959]

I like these sentences.. and I am wondering when someone will get 4 times death penalty... I think it will be difficult after the first time to do the second ne.. Same now 192 years in prison... What will happen if he dies in 10 years because no suspension... 

[JeffersLos]

9 minutes ago, ikke1959 said:

192 years in prison... What will happen if he dies in 10 years because no suspension... 

It's called reincarnation. 

 

He'll come back as some little guy, do some not-so-nice minor crime, and get his next 182 years. 

 

After being arrested in a policeman's Ferrari. 

[Sparktrader]

2 hours ago, Iamfalang said:

Your entire life's mission should be helping children, yet you starve them to make more money.

Let's hope the kids had money to buy all the junk sold around school, and I have a feeling this wasn't the only thing this guy did and the length of bad deeds is long.

 

50 years seems harsh, but not when we are talking about children (77 counts, maybe 77 kids?  probably hundreds)

50 years for small lunch?

 

5 to 10 years for murder

 

Crazy

[smedly]

these crimes should be measured by the value of the fraud, there are people in high places enriching themselves with billions - the untouchables who are protected by the rules they write themselves, I wonder how many there are in Thailand that are unusually rich and cannot account for their wealth

[TheFishman1]

Is it a common knowledge that the directors of the schools or the principles Take money for almost everything the school needs or receives like if they need furniture he gets a piece that gets a piece of the money for the lunches that are supplied pretty much everything that he orders for school he takes his cut just like the government or the head people in the government get their cut of everything the government orders whether it be engines for airplanes or guns for the military pretty much anything they buy they always get a piece I think it’s a built-in flaw that Taylan has it’s called corruption on all levels including the governors in Thailand TIT

[2baht]

Let's see if his hairs still black when he gets out! ????

[Orinoco]

Good.

I hope to see many more scumbags like this go to jail.

Reckon there are thousands of them in school administration. 

 

 

[IrishInThailand]

Out in 2

[AhFarangJa]

Mean while, the snouts in the local government continue to take a cut of all the infrastructure funding, Government aid, etc, etc, probably even the Judges who sentenced him.

I am in no way condoning what he did, little short of child abuse, but let us at least have a level playing field for everyone in public service.

[redwood1]

This guy just got to greedy, and made all the other grifters look bad....So he needed to be made a example out of....Now if he had only served garbage food maybe one week a month, that could have been claimed to be a misunderstanding and he would be doing no time...

[Bim Smith]

My street dogs get better food. Poor kids. ..   

The problem with corruption in countries such as Thailand is the really connected wouldn't even see a court room. If you are going to be corrupt as least have some connections. Like the army loan the recent army loan scandal.

[Bangkok Barry]

35 minutes ago, AhFarangJa said:

Mean while, the snouts in the local government continue to take a cut of all the infrastructure funding, Government aid, etc, etc, probably even the Judges who sentenced him.

I am in no way condoning what he did, little short of child abuse, but let us at least have a level playing field for everyone in public service.

There aren't enough prisons. I suppose they could get around that problem by getting prisoners to build more prisons.

[The Deerhunter]

58 minutes ago, IrishInThailand said:

Out in 2

Oh Come on. At least 2 lunchbreaks for the appeal to be processed.

[RichardColeman]

OK, 190 odd years, just so long as when the Generals and so on are looked into one day they get exactly the same sort of sentence for money 'appropriating' 

[Lucky Bones]

8 hours ago, ikke1959 said:

I like these sentences.. and I am wondering when someone will get 4 times death penalty... I think it will be difficult after the first time to do the second ne.. Same now 192 years in prison... What will happen if he dies in 10 years because no suspension... 

4 times death penalty.

That is most excellent????????

[rwill]

I wonder what they will feed him in prison.

[spidermike007]

He must have offended the wrong people. The justice system feels upside down here. And it does appear that if you have enough cash, you do not serve the time. 

 

Having said that, it is likely few are going to miss this creep. Preying on children is pretty low. 

[fittobethaied]

My stepdaughter is a government schoolteacher, and she has told me horrid stories of rampant corruption by these school directors. She is in charge of managing the budget for the school, so she has first-hand knowledge of the problems. A major Thai bank gives the school 400K per year to supplement the school lunch program, and the director steals half of it. This is only one of many ways that these crooked directors game the system.

[NorthernRyland]

This kind of corruption plagues rural roads also. They build a brand new road and the builder uses less material than they were contracted for and then takes the money saved and keeps it for themselves. 12 months later the brand new road is filled will holes and the crew gets to come back and get paid again to fix the mess.

 

I also bring this up to people and they seem very uninterested or even make excuses "yeah that's so they'll more work next year, it's smart" etc... Corruption is deeply embedded in the minds of the common man so I don't expect you can change this by throwing a few people in jail every so often.

[NorthernRyland]

1 hour ago, Bangkok Barry said:

There aren't enough prisons. I suppose they could get around that problem by getting prisoners to build more prisons.

Prisoners building prisons for free is an excellent idea I must say.

[mikebell]

4 hours ago, smedly said:

I wonder how many there are in Thailand that are unusually rich

There used to be a law against it but this Government has circumvented it.

[mikebell]

Just now, NorthernRyland said:

Prisoners building prisons for free is an excellent idea I must say.

Aren't they too busy making guns?

[NorthernRyland]

Just now, mikebell said:

Aren't they too busy making guns?

they're making guns? 

[Henryford]

They should check what car all school principals drive. If it's a Merc/BMW you know they are on the take.

[herfiehandbag]

1 hour ago, Bangkok Barry said:

There aren't enough prisons. I suppose they could get around that problem by getting prisoners to build more prisons.

The funding to build the prisons to house the legions of corrupt woul have to allow for a 20% "skim"!

[Gknrd]

All these guys are thieves, this is just the tip of the iceberg.. I personally know of on incident. Director of a college was renting out a building on campus for a 7-11 type shop. He closed the school so the kids could not leave during lunch so the store could make more money and he could charge more rent.  Rent was 300K / yr. The teachers were to afraid to say anything. He was pocketing every cent.. 

Thailand is full of these trolls..

[Purdey]

This will be interesting. On a prison visit a few years ago I was allowed to chat with prisoners unsupervised. An old lady informed that while the government paid for meat in their food they were given only rice and vegetables.

This chap is going to be hungry.

[BangkokReady]

13 hours ago, Iamfalang said:

Your entire life's mission should be helping children, yet you starve them to make more money.

Isn't it the norm in Thailand where public money is involved?