Big payday for the police, maybe some of the money will vanish.

Some?...

Actually, believe it or not, the same thing can happen in the states. It's called 'civil forfeiture', 'can be cash or other assets (cars, homes, etc.) and it's not necessary for local police to ever even bring criminal charges. Nor is a warrant necessary (well, sort of...). Money doesn't end up in any particular cop's pockets (or so I read), but it CAN end up funding salaries. Essentially police departments end up getting it, or in some cases having to split it with the Feds. Theoretically, the individual can claim it back, but that process is usually made incredibly burdensome & delayed. In many cases, the individual gets a portion of it back in return for an agreement not to sue the police over it. In other cases, the individual agrees to just forfeit some or all of it in return for criminal charges not being brought - which sounds a whole lot like bribery to me.

I know - off-topic. Except that if it's so widespread in the states (where constitutional rights used to be such a big deal), I'd be surprised if it wasn't happening in lots of other western countries, too. And if there, then maybe the whole thing is the rule rather than the exception pretty much everywhere, and this is just the Thai version.