Couple arrested for allegedly duping Revenue Department to give them Bt1.5 million as tax returns

BANGKOK: -- A married couple have been arrested for allegedly falsifying tax declarations online and duping the Revenue Department to issue them over Bt1.5 million worth of tax return cheques.

Pongsakorn Apikulpaisal, 42, and his wife, Busara Udompornkul, 40, were arrested at their house in Bangkok's Talingchan district on Thursday.

Central Investigation Bureau Commissioner Lt Gen Thangai Prassachaksattru held a press conference to ANNounce the couple's arrest Friday.

Revenue Director-General Winai Witthawaskarnwej told the press conference that the couple hired some 100 people for Bt500 each to open bank accounts and kept their passbooks and ATM cards.

The couple then used these person's names and ID numbers to falsify tax declarations and used a few addresses for the department to mail tax return cheques to.

The declarations stated that these 100 people had income from commissions and interest rates and had their incomes deducted for taxes.

Winai said the department later found out that a lot of cheques were sent to the same few addresses and subsequent investigations were carried out and found that these persons had never really paid taxes for the declared incomes.

Winai said the department had already issued tax return cheques worth Bt1.5 million under the scam.

-- The Nation 2009-03-06

Hard to tell who is the more astute of the 2 parties involved, the group sending the money or the recipients staying at the address where they could be found.

Hard to tell who is the more astute of the 2 parties involved, the group sending the money or the recipients staying at the address where they could be found.

Doesn't one think that the Tax Dept would check to see if the tax was really paid??? Sounds like an inside job to me