Kidnapping gang caught by ATM photos

21 กรกฎาคม 2557

Real purpose of kidnapping was to force victim's daughter to return 30 million stolen from kidnapper's company, kidnapper claims.

In a crime re-enactment, Prathan Khammisat, who owns a construction business, shows how he was chained to a bed in a house in Rayong. Wassayos Ngamkham

CRIME

Crooks’ arrest was in the cards

Cops preyed on abductors' greed and stupidity to nab them
21/07/2014
Wassayos Ngamkham

Two of the three suspects are seen in video footage at an ATM. Wassayos Ngamkham

Police used money transfers through ATMs to lure a gang holding a 70-year-old man for ransom to come out into the open, leading to their quick and easy arrest last week.

The police officers spent only six days to search and identify gang members, using video footage from ATMs which recorded two of the kidnappers’ transaction activities.

The information led to the arrest of all gang members and the release of the victim, Prathan Khammisat, who was found chained to a bed in a house in Rayong last Wednesday.

Mr Prathan, who owns a construction business, was reported missing on July 10 after he left his home in a pickup truck.

His daughter Surirat alerted the local police after a man used Mr Prathan’s mobile phone to call her and demanded 500,000 baht in exchange for his release.

Worried about her father’s safety, Ms Surirat decided to contact the Crime Suppression Division for additional help the next morning.

CSD officers, led by Pol Col Niran Namsuwan, launched an investigation into the case, aware that speed was essential to ensure the safety of the victim.

He said his team started by contacting banks, knowing that at one point the suspects would have to use their service for money transactions.

As expected, on July 12, one of the gang members used Mr Prathan’s ATM card to withdraw money in front of a Lotus Express convenience store at Nopphakao branch in Rayong. A security camera caught footage of a man believed to be a gang member.

The gang then called Ms Surirat, instructing her to transfer the ransom to Mr Prathan’s bank account.

The call gave the investigators an opportunity to lure them out of their hideaway. Pol Col Niran asked Ms Surirat to gradually transfer money to the account to force the suspects to make more trips to ATMs.

On July 13, Ms Surirat transferred cash to the account in separate transactions, each of about 20,000 baht. The gang eventually appeared at an ATM in front of a store near the Nopphakao intersection and made off with 70,000 baht.

The suspects used a saloon car in their getaway. Its registration number was later identified by police who used this information to narrow their search for the wrongdoers.X

The CSD investigators worked with local police to identify the car’s owner and examined the suspects seen in the security camera footage. One man was identified as a former police informant in drug cases, according to Pol Col Thitawat Suriyashai, superintendent for investigation of the Provincial Police Region 2. Other suspects in the footage were also found to be in the same network of the informant.

Ms Surirat, meanwhile, went on transferring money to the gangsters on July 14 to allow police more time to confirm their identities and check their criminal records.

One suspect was later identified as Anucha Disamo, 43. He was seen on CCTV withdrawing money from an ATM at Lotus Express in Khao Talo, in Chon Buri.

The money transfer continued on Tuesday before police decided to move in on the gang using five separate teams the following day.

They first arrested Mr Anucha, together with another gang member Phadungkiat Mongkhoncharoen, 35, in Chon Buri’s Bang Lamung district. The two were arrested in the afternoon while travelling to withdraw money from an ATM.

Almost simultaneously, another team of police nabbed Suwit Singkan, 32, in front of a store in the same district.

The three were told to lead the officers to a house in Rayong’s Muang district where Mr Prathan was held. There, another two suspects — Thanu Shuchian, 33, and a woman named Supha Pannin, 26, were held.

At night, another team of officers arrested Anlop Chaloentham, 36, at his apartment in Bang Lamung district.

The six suspects allegedly admitted they colluded to abduct Mr Prathan, Pol Col Niran said.

The suspects said some of them had posed as police officers while approaching the victim, before forcing him at gunpoint to travel with them to Rayong.

Mr Anucha claimed he and his gang had abducted Mr Prathan because Ms Surirat, the victim’s daughter who works as a clerk at his firm, had embezzled 30 million baht from his company.

The suspect had, in fact, claimed the real purpose of the abduction was to force Ms Surirat to return the money to his company and not for the 500,000-baht ransom, Pol Col Niran quoted Mr Anucha as saying.

"Whatever his claim was, he should have gone through legal channels," Pol Col Niran said.

Contact Crime Track: [email protected]

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/crimes/421508/crooks-arrest-was-on-the-cards