Five ‘who posed as delivery men’ arrested for theft of motorcycles
POLICE HAVE arrested five alleged members of a motorcycle theft gang who disguised themselves as newspaper delivery men to steal motorbikes in Bangkok.
At the Metropolitan Police Bureau yesterday, Pol Maj General Surachai Kuandechakup said the five were arrested in Bang Khae district along with evidence including 21 motorcycle licence plates and 12 sets of ignition keys.
The suspects were identified as Somdech Chinnabutr, 49, Wittaya Wongwuth, 49, Kwanchai Sukban, 31, Nitipol Pliansakul, 29, and Jarin Seubsai, 54.
The arrests followed two early-morning motorcycle thefts, one on October 30 last year at a house in Bang Sue district’s Soi Pracharat 9 and the other on December 23 at Soi Pracharat 11.
Both crimes were carried out by two suspects riding a motorcycle and disguised as paper delivery men.
Jarin allegedly confessed that the gang had operated for over a year. Stolen motorbikes were fitted with new ignition key units before being sent to Tak and Ranong and then sold in Myanmar for Bt12,000 each, with the gang members receiving up to Bt9,000 each.
Investigators also found that Wittaya allegedly used to worked with a gambling den, which took motorbikes for onward sale to Myanmar, so he set up three teams of motorcycle thieves.
With two of the teams busted, police are now looking for members of the third team – Wiroj Saibutr, 36 and a man named Kiat, who is in his 30s.
Another two alleged accomplices, identified as Charan and Samart Popbo-ngern, were apprehended in the Khok Kham precinct jurisdiction in Samut Sakhon.