Lottery vendor jailed two years for making up story of first-prize winner
A lottery vendor who made up a story that a buyer failed to collect a set of first-prize winning tickets worth Bt90 million was on Tuesday jailed two years and 15 days.
The Samut Sakhon Court found Thanawat Kamhaengpol, 36, a lottery vendor at a petrol station in Samut Sakhon, guilty of two counts of charges filed against him and sentenced him to jail.
About a year ago, Thanawat made headlines when he posted his picture holding 15 lottery tickets with winning numbers of the first prize of that month’s draw. He claimed that the winner was a regular buyer and had not come to claim the tickets.
The story earned him overnight fame with a lot of lottery buyers flocking to his shop to buy tickets.
But a quick-eyed lawyer spotted that the lottery tickets had been faked, with cutting and pasting used to change one of the numbers.
Thanawat and his wife, Nonglak Sodachan, were later arrested and charged with four counts – falsifying and using falsified documents, defrauding the public, violating the computer crime act by uploading false information onto the internet and selling overpriced lottery tickets.
The court dismissed the charge of public deception and found Thanawat guilty of falsifying and using falsified documents. He was sentenced to one year for this count.
He was sentenced to one month in jail and slapped a fine of Bt2,000 for selling overpriced lottery tickets. Since Thanawat pled guilty of this charge, the court commuted the jail sentence to 15 days.
The court also sentenced him to one year in jail for violating the computer crime act. Together, the sentences added up to two years and 15 days in jail and a fine of Bt2,000.
The court found Nonglak guilty of selling overpriced tickets and was initially sentenced to one month in jail and a fine of Bt2,000. The court commuted the jail sentence to 15 days because she pled guilty to the charge.
Thanawat plans to appeal the ruling.