M'sians jailed for e-card forgery
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BANGKOK'S Ratchadaphisek Criminal Court yesterday handed a sentence of 568 years in prison to five Malaysian men for electronic-card forgery. However, they are to serve only 50 years behind bars under the maximum Thai criminal code penalty.
The five defendants – Francis Xavier Arulappan, 35; Mageswaran Balakrishnan, 23; VelanraJ Vallanrasen, 22; Gunalan Kumaresan, 25; and Kartik Sinansamy, 25 – were found guilty of 142 counts of forgery and using the cards to withdraw cash worth Bt500,000.
The complaint stated that the five men and other elusive accomplices from April 2-26, 2009, had used some 700 fake cards to buy goods and withdraw cash from banks in Krabi, Trang, Songkhla and other provinces on 142 occasions.
The court found them guilty and initially sentenced each of them to 568 years in prison but halved the punishment to 284 years on grounds of useful confessions. The court also ordered them to repay Bt500,000 to the banks.
