Jail sentence upheld in 'tutorial king' fraud case

[Windsorhai]

Jail sentence upheld in 'tutorial king' fraud case

KESINEE TAENGKHIAO
THE NATION September 26, 2013 1:00 am

THE APPEALS Court yesterday upheld the lower court's ruling to jail Pemika Weerachatraksit for 54 months for duping Dr Prakitpao Thomchitchong, the founder of a well-known tutorial business, of money and valuables.

It also ordered all four of the suspects to pay Bt8.3 million back to Prakitpao.

The Appeals Court upheld suspended jail terms for Pemika's three friends, and added a condition that each would be jailed if they failed to pay previously imposed Bt27,000 fines. It ordered the four defendants to repay Bt8,395,387 to Prakitpao.

Pemika, 31, and friends Reuthai Runfsirimethakul, Natthapol Phromprapai and Wathanyu Tantheerapong were found to have cheated "tutorial king" Prakitpao, who was then in a mentally weak state, of money and valuables from October 2006 to February 2007. They allegedly convinced Prakitpao that he and Pemika had attained, through meditation, a supernatural ability to recall 99 past lifetimes, in which the two were husband and wife. As a result of this relationship, they claimed, Prakitpao was in debt to Pemika.

Prakitpao was duped into buying a Bt1.59-million Toyota Camry sedan with a special registration number worth another Bt980,000 for Pemika, as well as 10 valuable items worth Bt9.65 million.

On October 26, 2010, the lower court sentenced Pemika to a 54-month jail term for fraud and attempted fraud and sentenced each of her three friends to a two-year suspended jail term and Bt27,000 fine, as well as ordering the four defendants to repay Bt8 million to Prakitpao.

After the verdict, Pemika said she had no job now and had to take care of her three children. She said her mother had arranged assets worth Bt1 million to apply for her bail release.