CityNews – 22nd February 2020, police arrested a married couple for pretending to be contractors, taking deposits from people and then never following through with the job.
The fifth region police arrested Kawinna Panyadimangmeesuk, 45, for fraud. Kawinna was arrested at a construction site as she was evaluating the cost for a construction job for a client. Her husband, Harran Chaisorn, 44, was also arrested later that day while offering an evaluation at a construction site in Hang Dong.
Many complaints had previously been lodged against the couple. Nattawut Tanoi 41, was one such victim who said that in December he had contracted the couple to do some work on his home. Apparently the couple said that their company was called Panyadimangmeesuk and had given a far cheaper estimate for works than other companies. He therefore agreed to the project costing 161,000 baht putting a deposit of 50,000 baht down. After a week however no work had begun and after chasing them, they finally sent a crew to dig six holes. When nothing was done after that and one excuse after another was used, it was then discovered that the people hired to dig the six holes were also conned into doing this job and not paid by the couple.
Upon further investigation Natthawut discovered that the company was not formally registered.
Police reckon there are a total of five known victims at this time with combined damages of one million baht. It was also discovered that Kawinna had recently been released from jail, in 2018, for fraud.