Nattatapong Khongpreecha
has been charged with both fraud and impersonating a Navy officer.
Patcharapol Panrak
A former Royal Thai Navy conscript has been arrested for allegedly
scamming active recruits out of 25,000 baht each with a promise to spare
them from serving in Thailand’s violent southern provinces.
Nattatapong Khongpreecha, 28, a senior manager with Neo Life
International Co., was arrested by Navy and Sattahip police Sept. 9. He
was charged with both fraud and impersonating a Navy officer.
Nattatapong, who served in the Navy from 2009-2011, allegedly visited
the Naval Recruit Training Center, passing himself off as a Navy
commander. There he is accused of befriending young conscripts,
name-dropping high-ranking officers he claimed were friends and told
them that, for a fee, he could assure them they would not be posted in
the south, where hundreds of Navy personnel have been killed in a
separatist uprising since 2004.
Three victims reportedly paid Nattapong 25,000 each. He’d then come to
the training center as himself and present a Neo Life gift basket worth
5,000 baht to a high-ranking officer friend, claiming that the conscript
was a relative and asking that he be spared service in the south. It was
then up to the officer to decide the conscript’s fate. Success was not
guaranteed and Nattapong kept the 20,000 left over after the basket’s
purchase.
