BANGKOK, 12 September 2013 The Immigration Bureau has announced that a person implicated in the Thai visa sticker theft case has been arrested.
Ms Piyamart Bandasak, 39, has been arrested at a house in Bangkok’s Bueng Kum district. She is charged with forgery in connection with the missing visa labels at the Thai embassy in Kuala Lumpur last month and aiding a criminal in carrying out illegal activities.
In July, Cameroonian national Samuel Ekwale was found to have used a Thai visa sticker issued by the Thai embassy in Kuala Lumpur although he had never travelled to the Malaysian capital. Mr Ekwale told police that he purchased the sticker from Ms Piyamart.
The Department of Consular Affairs informed the Immigration Bureau early in August that 300 visa labels had gone missing from the Malaysia-based Thai embassy.
Ms Piyamart confessed that she had been recruited by Indian national Kumar Ramesh to help him sell and distribute visa stickers to foreigners. So far 20 foreigners have been apprehended for using the stolen visa labels to enter the kingdom while Mr Ramesh remains at large.
