Former school teacher Preecha Kraikruan and two lottery vendors were sentenced to one year in prison today by the Kanchanaburi provincial court, after they were found guilty of perjury when they gave false statements regarding a 30-million baht lottery controversy.
The court gave Preecha and the two vendors, “Rattanaporn” and “Patrida” two years initially, but commuted the sentence to one year because they had pleaded guilty. The court declined to suspend their imprisonment though, and the three convicts are applying for bail.
The case dates back to 2017, when Pol Lt Charoon Wimoon, a retired police officer, won 30 million baht on five first prize lottery tickets. Preecha claimed, however, that he was the real owner of the tickets but had lost them and Charoon found them.
The two lottery vendors falsely claimed that they sold the tickets to Preecha and became his witnesses.
The 30 million baht, which was deposited in a bank, was ordered frozen by a senior police officer in Kanchanaburi as the conflicting parties fought their case through the Criminal, Appeals and Supreme courts over the ownership of the winning tickets.
In June this year, the Supreme Court ordered the acquittal of misappropriation charges filed against Charoon by Preecha and awarded the 30 million baht prize money to Charoon.
Sittra Biabungkerd, secretary-general of the People’s Lawyer Foundation, represented Charoon.
