Fake passport suspects recaptured after escaping police custody

[snoop1130]

Fake passport suspects recaptured after escaping police custody

By Phuket Gazette

 

 

PHUKET:-- Officers from Phuket Provincial Police, Saku Police and Patong Police joined forces to capture two Indian men who escaped police custody after being arrested for using fake passports.

 

Phuket Provincial Police Commander Teerapol Thipjaroen held a press conference at Phuket Provincial Police Station to provide details of the case yesterday afternoon.

 

“The two suspects are Raj Kumar, 36, and Sandeep Singh, 30. They were first arrested at 5pm Saturday, but managed to escape from Saku Police Station,” said Gen Teerapol.

 

After receiving reports that they had taken a taxi to Patong, officers coordinated with Patong Police to begin a manhunt. The suspects were recaptured at 11pm the same day.

 

“Both confessed that they were Indian by birth and wished to work in Canada, but were afraid of visa rejection. They contacted an agent in Phuket who promised to provide them with fake passports and accommodation. They initially entered Thailand in March at Suvarnabhumi International Airport using their real passports,” added Gen Teerapol.

 

After obtaining fake Portuguese passports in Thailand, they went to Malaysia (using their real passports), but returned to Thailand in April at the Satun border where they used the fake (Portuguese) ones. They then came to Phuket and stayed at a hotel in Patong.

 

On May 19, they boarded a flight to Canada at Phuket International Airport with a transit in South Korea. However, South Korean immigration officials denied them onward boarding and the two were rerouted back to Phuket. 

 

“South Korean authorities did not specify the exact reason that the men were refused entry,” said Col Supachok Yongstar of Phuket Immigration Office.

 

Gen Teerapol said the agent for the fake passports is believed to be a foreigner, but officials have yet to identify or track him down.

 

“The suspects told us that they had spent more than a million baht each on the entire process, including accommodation and flights to Malaysia and Canada. We are examining the seal on the fake passports to compare it with the original,” said Gen Teerapol.

 

“It is perplexing that Thai immigration allowed them to pass through. According to CCTV footage at the airport, the passports were scanned as per the usual procedure, but nothing suspicious was detected,” he added.

 

Col Supachok admitted that, paradoxically, it was becoming more and more difficult to detect fake passports nowadays as the technology had become more advanced. He said that this was a model case for officers to follow in order to avoid repeating the same mistake(s).

 

Both suspects were charged with possession and use of a forged passport and taken to Saku Police Station for further legal processing.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/national/30315989

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-5-22

[jvs]

Nice to see a follow up on this story,good work!

[Raymonddiaz]

where is the Thai woman who was with them?????

[Deli]

From India through Thailand and Malaysia to Canada ? Missed some lessons in Geography or didn't consider Koreans maybe a bit smarter than others...

Hope they kick them out and these high quality tourist will never be seen again. But I doubt...

[Juan B Tong]

it was becoming more and more difficult to detect fake passports nowadays as the technology had become more advanced. 

 

An absolute Luddite.

 

Guess this means you can‘t see where the glue is.

[Eff1n2ret]

It's strange that having entered Malaysia on their real passports they could have re-entered Thailand with the Portuguese one - unless those passports also carried, say, a fake Kuala Lumpur entry stamp so the inference would be that they'd flown into Malaysia from Europe.

 

It would seem that the forgery detection skills of officers at provincial immigration controls are somewhat below par, and that the forgers know this. Presumably it's more risky at Suvarnabhumi, otherwise they could have got a flight direct to Canada, where of course they would claim asylum.

[FitnessHealthTravel]

How many people are in Thailand with fake Passports right now. A lot it might seem. However it's getting harder and harder to go anywhere with them as the rest of the world gets smarter.

[stevenl]

38 minutes ago, Eff1n2ret said:

It's strange that having entered Malaysia on their real passports they could have re-entered Thailand with the Portuguese one - unless those passports also carried, say, a fake Kuala Lumpur entry stamp so the inference would be that they'd flown into Malaysia from Europe.

 

It would seem that the forgery detection skills of officers at provincial immigration controls are somewhat below par, and that the forgers know this. Presumably it's more risky at Suvarnabhumi, otherwise they could have got a flight direct to Canada, where of course they would claim asylum.

Also flying in from Thailand you would not get an entry stamp.

[peteregion]

44 minutes ago, Eff1n2ret said:

It's strange that having entered Malaysia on their real passports they could have re-entered Thailand with the Portuguese one - unless those passports also carried, say, a fake Kuala Lumpur entry stamp so the inference would be that they'd flown into Malaysia from Europe.

 

It would seem that the forgery detection skills of officers at provincial immigration controls are somewhat below par, and that the forgers know this. Presumably it's more risky at Suvarnabhumi, otherwise they could have got a flight direct to Canada, where of course they would claim asylum.

They could exit Makaysia with their original passport and enter Thailand with the fake Portugese passport.

[docshock13]

3 hours ago, Raymonddiaz said:

where is the Thai woman who was with them?????

I think that is a different jail break where the cop claimed he forgot to lock the door after letting their gf in for a visit. 

[Eff1n2ret]

1 hour ago, peteregion said:

They could exit Makaysia with their original passport and enter Thailand with the fake Portugese passport.

But the point is that if there was no endorsement in the fake passport to suggest that they had somehow entered Malaysia legally, even the dimwits on the Thai border control might have noticed.

But yes, they would have got stamped out of Malaysia on their real passports and switched before presenting themselves at the Thai booth. The whole point about the side trip to Malaysia was to clock them into the Thai database, so that they could present the fake passports on leaving Phuket with a fair chance of getting through. The machine-readable data on the Portuguese passports must have been correct.

[stevenl]

22 minutes ago, Eff1n2ret said:

But the point is that if there was no endorsement in the fake passport to suggest that they had somehow entered Malaysia legally, even the dimwits on the Thai border control might have noticed.<snip>

Enter by air and there is no stamp or similar in the passport, as pointed out to you earlier, so the dimwits had no reason to suspect they had entered Malaysia illegally or on different passports.

Edited May 23, 2017 by stevenl

[elgordo38]

18 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

“The suspects told us that they had spent more than a million baht each on the entire process, including accommodation and flights to Malaysia and Canada. We are examining the seal on the fake passports to compare it with the original,” said Gen Teerapol.

Wow a million bahts on a wild goose chase. Did they rob a bank along he way?

[klauskunkel]

19 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

"The suspects told us that they had spent more than a million baht each on the entire process..."

"It is perplexing that Thai immigration allowed them to pass through."

Col Supachok admitted that, paradoxically, it was becoming more and more difficult to detect fake passports

perplexed by a paradoxical conundrum - that about sums up the chain of command.

I could lift the veil of mystery, but it might lead to the banning of such commonly used terms like "bribe" and "stupid"

[Rhys]

a bit too funny... like the previous one of the jailer who forgot to lock the jail cell...and the guys walked out with their girlfriends...all on video...

[mvdf]

I find this disturbing. How did their passports pass scrutiny when the data page alone looks different from the authentic passport:

 

 

Versus:

 

 

Image source:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_passport