Three Serbians have been arrested by police on fraud charges for selling fake gold ornaments to gold shops in Bangkok.
The three suspects were identified as Alexsandar Despotovic, 40, Mrs Vera Despotovic, 39 and Boris Kuzmanoski. Police seized 19 fake gold necklaces and two fake gold bracelets from the trio.
Complaints were lodged with the police by four gold shops in Bang Lamphu district that bought fake gold necklaces from the trio. Police then alerted gold shops in Bangkok to watch out for foreigners trying to sell gold ornaments.
At about 1 pm on Wednesday, police were alerted by Eng Seng Heng goldshop on Charoenkrung road in Pom Prab district when one of the gang, identified as Alexsandar Despotovic approached a staff member to offer gold necklaces for sale.
Meanwhile, Chana Songkram police were also alerted of another foreigner, identified later as Boris Kuzmanoski, approaching Eng Hua Heng goldshop in Phra Nakhon district to sell his gold necklaces.
Police arrived at the two gold shops and nabbed the two Serbians. The duo later led police to Rikka Inn hotel in Khao Sarn area where they arrested Mrs Vera Despotovic.
Then three Serbians claimed they didn’t know the gold was fake. They said they were told by a friend back in Serbia that they could make a fortune from gold bought in Serbia and sold in Thailand.
Mrs Sudarat Ongsritrakul, an owner of Eng Hua Heng goldshop said she bought a gold necklace from Boris at 45,000 baht. She told the police that the Serbain refused to let her to saw the gold chain to see if it was authentic so she tested the necklace in accordance with the test procedure and was sure it was real.
However, she added that she later had the gold chain burned and found the core was made of silver.
Mrs Sudarat went on saying that imported 18K gold was normally inscribed with a country’s code number, but the gold chains of the gang did not have any code number.
