Dishonest Bangkok Cop Sees Sentence Reduced From 1,765 Years To 50

[webfact]

Dishonest cop sees sentence reduced from 1,765 years to 50

The Nation

BANGKOK: -- The Supreme Court on Wednesday sentenced a Bangkok policeman to a total of 1,765 years in prison for embezzling Bt512,342 in fines, but reduced that to the legal maximum jail term of 50 years.

The lawsuit stated Pol SgtKosol Jompol, 41, a former administrative Bueng Kum district policeman, had failed to pay the fines into state bank accounts but instead put the money into his own pocket on 353 occasions from February 10, 2003 to April 30, 2004.

The primary court had ruled on November 19, 2010 that Kosol was guilty and gave him a 1,765-year prison term, which was halved due to his useful confession and then reduced to the maximum jail term of 50 years along with an order to return Bt512,342 to the state.

After the Appeal Court upheld the ruling in September 2011, the defendant, who had been detained throughout the trial, appealed further for a reduced sentence. He claimed that he didn’t realise the consequences of his action, that he had no financial expertise, that he had to take care of his ailing mother and that he had already returned the embazzled money to the state.

However, the Supreme Court did not consider there were sufficient grounds for reducing the sentence, which the lower courts had appropriately passed, and thus upheld the ruling, which will see the former policeman stay in jail the maximum 50 years.

After hearing the verdict, Kosol appeared calm and without emotion. None of his family members was present for the verdict.

-- The Nation 2012-07-11

[gl555]

That was generous of the court!

[Thai at Heart]

Do people manage to keep a straight face when writing these articles?

1765 years jail, halved to 882, then to 50 years for 11,000 GBP? The boss probably has more on his credit card than this................................

I guess, the moral of this one, is if you are going to do it, do it very very very large and leg it, what do you have to lose?

Edited July 11, 2012 by Thai at Heart

[Kananga]

The moral of this story (for Bangkok's finest) is that tea money ALWAYS flows upwards, and dont forget to pour...

[waza]

I guess the lesson is dont engage in corruption against the corrupt. Is there no honour Among Thieves.

[sunshine51]

Thai Justice.....How Amazing!

[Thai at Heart]

Why didn't they just sentence him to eternal damnation?

How can a court sentence you to incarceration beyond the legal maximum? Does someone get out of bed in the morning and genuinely sentence someone to 1700 years in jail?????

[chooka]

Guess they were making an example of him to deter all the other police who may be tempted to take some tea money. Nice to see they got this one bad apple out the the barrel before he corrupted another member.

Edited July 11, 2012 by chooka

[Thai at Heart]

Guess they were making an example of him to deter all the other police who may be tempted to take some tea money. Nice to see they got this one bad apple out the the barrel before he corrupted another member.

Strike one for a fair and just justice system

[Skywalker69]

That means many of the MP´s should spend a couple of billion years in jail.

[Reasonableman]

AND, he has to repay the money from inside the slammer... that's really adding insult to injury.

[mrtoad]

Seems like a small amount of money really, compared to all the other Scams the BIB are up to. Obviously, he wasn't playing buy the rules and sharing his treasure with the rest of the pirates.

[GentlemanJim]

Well the copper should be having a party and doing flip flops in jail. Just when he thought he had to do the best part of two millennia in jail, he gets off with a mere 50 years, lucky ba****d! !!!!

I haven't even tried google yet, but this must rate as one of the longest ever jail sentences to be handed down. He would have done less time and made more money if he would have hired himself out as a serial hitman.

[h90]

That means many of the MP´s should spend a couple of billion years in jail.

Till the end of the universe......

100 Fantastillon years reduced to 50 Fantastillon years if they confess

[Thai at Heart]

I would guess, that anywhere else in the world, his boss would be a pretty nervous man.

Do they do plea bargains in Thailand? Oh the stories this guy could tell.

[ratcatcher]

Another fairy tale from the land of fantasy. Amazing Thailand.

50 years for embezzling a paltry half million baht or so. I wonder if the Artful Dodger in Dubai will get anything like this?

One law for some, no law for others.

[ukrules]

He would have got much less time had he simply pulled his gun out and blew a few heads off.

[saltandpepper]

Sure the guy feels relieved!

[canuckamuck]

Reduced to the maximum, Fascinating.

[tragickingdom]

Stupidity is omnipotent in the Supreme Court. 1765 years, if they nay gave a few weeks to their own crooked friends within the constitutional court caught red handed on tape and published on Youtube.

it is so slimy, making an example out of one small crook while we know that the top bras are sharing millions from illegal casinos and prostitution.

If they are going to give a few thousand years to every crooked cop they can star a Don Muang highway and work their way back to Petchburi. by the time they arrive there the prisons are full.

[Arkady]

Thai sentences are totally out of proportion given the size of the offence and the massive level of corruption by senior figures that is known to all and goes unpunished and uninvestigated. He ended up with the maximum sentence the law allows anyway which is the same as murderers and drug dealers get who have had the death sentence commuted. The reduction in sentence is a non-story because it is routine to reduce the sentence to the maximum after applying a certain tariff on multiple counts resulting in more than 50 years.

[Katipo]

Quite simply, he 'forgot' to give his superiors their majority cut. This sentence is a reminder to others on the beat who may be entertaining such a foolish notion.

[jerrysteve]

Why should anybody be suprised by police taking tea money or anyone else in government for that matter.

His superiors probably got very annoyed with him not sharing the "loot." And who turned him in? 500 K in Thai Baht is a good chunk of

change.

I would have thought he would have gotten some kind of Olykmpian gold metal for that being some kind of record.

Well maybe not a gold medal, but at least a bronze for sure.

Let The Games Continue!!!! YIPI KY YA

[Colabamumbai]

Only in Thailand....But maybe a message to other corrupt cops.

[johnlandy]

That was generous of the court!

Yes, and the original sentence was probably to take into account the hundreds (thousands) of other bent cops who do very nicely from their nefarious activities.

[cowslip]

looks like the small fry was made a scapegoat by some larger fish.......

Stand by for his next reduction in sentence though

[Thai at Heart]

The sad thing is, he probably never got the money.

500k in tickets written, but the money had probably already gone into someone else's pocket, and some smart minded auditor probably discovered it, and he is the fall guy.

[finnomick1]

...bet he's chuffed to bits about that then !

[Briggsy]

This officer has obviously lost his patron. He is/was a sergeant. That is not a commissioned officer rank. He must have a patron. Usually in these cases, there is a conflict between 2 major players and one kicks the dog i.e. shows that he can do anything to an underling of the other, in this case get him sent to prison for 50 years.

You saw the same thing in the expressway toll collector getting 20 years and Thaksin's lawyers getting 12 months or however long they got.

This rubbish about pocketing the fines is not the real issue here.

[geovalin]

Why this one and not the one I saw this morning at the U Turn?