Lost Wallet – Thai Woman Faces Charges After Using Tourist’s Lost Money on Koh Phangan Island

An Israeli woman who lost her wallet thanked the Koh Phangan Tourist Police for quickly tracking it down and returning it. The Thai woman who found and used the money from the wallet is being prosecuted.

On August 10, the Tourist Police Service Unit on Koh Phangan island received a report from Miss Noga, a 24-year-old Israeli national, that she had dropped her wallet in front of a convenience store in Sri Thanu branch.

After checking CCTV footage, they found a woman wearing a black shirt and shorts, with a plump figure and long hair, picking up the wallet.

At 00:34 a.m. on August 10, that woman used the money to pay for goods at the convenience store counter and then left on a motorcycle.

At 7:30 p.m. on August 10, Koh Phangan Tourist Police gathered information, witness accounts, evidence, and identified the person who picked up the wallet as Miss Jutarat, a 23-year-old Thai national. She admitted to finding the wallet on the floor in front of an ATM, opening it to find cards and cash, and then using 2,959 baht of the victim’s money.

The investigating officers at Koh Phangan Police Station then brought her in for legal proceedings. The law states that if anyone finds someone else’s property but doesn’t return it to the owner or hand it over to the police, they may be guilty of theft under criminal law.

This offense carries a penalty of up to 3 years imprisonment and a fine not exceeding 60,000 baht, or embezzlement of lost property, which carries a penalty of up to 1 year and 6 months imprisonment or a fine not exceeding 30,000 baht, or both.

Read the full story at KhaoSodEnglish – Thai Woman Faces Charges After Using Tourist’s Lost Money in Phangan which was brought to us by Google Alerts.

Photo credit @ KhaoSodEnglish