20 Years For Cheating Bank Official

[george]

20 years for cheating bank official

BANGKOK: -- A former KASIKORNBANK (KBANK) employee who defrauded customers out of nearly Bt100 million - apparently to fund his betting habit - today received a 20-year sentence from the Criminal Court.

Mr. Surakij Phukaew, 31, was convicted on 20 counts of counterfeiting documents and faking customers' signatures, and using these to cheat nine customers out of their cash while working at the bank's Orn Nuch Branch from 1998 to 2002.

Speaking after the sentence was handed down, Mr. Prawit Chantharalawan, a senior member of the KBANK legal department, said that all the stolen cash would be returned to the customers, together with the interest owed them.

He accused Mr. Surakij of stealing the money in order to fund his football gambling habit, noting that the defendant had often made bets of several hundred thousand baht.

Although Mr. Surakij has claimed that all the stolen money has already disappeared, the court today ordered him to pay back Bt57 million.

--TNA 2005-01-31

[tuky]

I have never been able to fathom the addiction to gambling some people have. I know for a lot of folks it is a very real problem, but stealing 100,000,000 baht and wasting it on gambling, man that is already like winning the super lotto.