Crime Trusted Employee Accused of Stealing Over 3 Million Baht in Gold

[Georgealbert]

 

Picture courtesy of Khaosod.

 

A gold shop owner in Surat Thani has filed a police complaint against a long-serving employee accused of embezzling more than 3 million baht through a scheme involving fake pawn documents.

 

At around 11.30 on 25 August, Mrs Chanrudi, owner of Mae Malee Gold Bullion Co. Ltd. (Mae Malee Gold Shop 7), presented evidence at Surat Thani Police Station to Pol Lt Col Weerachat Seera, an investigating officer. She accused her employee, Ms Puangpen, also known as Bua, 45, of systematically siphoning money from the business for more than a year.

 

Mrs Chanrudi explained that Puangpen had worked at the shop for over 20 years and was entrusted with handling customer gold pawns and managing the shop’s storage. However, she allegedly exploited this trust by pawning her own five-baht-weight gold, preparing official documents and paying herself the cash, while leaving only empty bags in the store’s safe.

 

The scam came to light on 22 August, when a random audit of pawn packages revealed that 20 bags of gold were missing, representing a loss of 3,288,800 baht. Further checks found that on 23 August, Puangpen allegedly stole an additional 170,000 baht in cash.

 

Puangpen did not report for work on the 25/August and her employer suspects she may already have fled.

 

Police have accepted the complaint and are attempting to locate the suspect.

 

 

  Adapted by Asean Now from Khaosod 2025-08-26