Thailand Bail’s international legal team recently won a landmark case in the Pattaya Khwaeng Court. Our client, a Russian citizen, was accused in a complicated case of having defrauded another Russian of over 4,000,000 THB. This criminal case, which lasted for close to 12 months, was connected to a prior criminal case in the Samut Prakarn Provincial Court, involving possession of firearms. From this case, our client was accused of having stolen over 4,000,000 Thai baht, in the form of Thai baht, US dollars, and Russian rubles, from the former defendant, turned plaintiff and injured party in this case. After a difficult time locating sufficient witnesses and evidence, we were successful in court in March 2019, confirmed by the judgment on 25 April 2019, dismissing all charges against our client! Our client was extremely happy with the result, as you can probably imagine. We not only saved her from having to pay any money to the plaintiff in this case, but we also saved her from prison time in Thailand. For more details, please read below, and if you have a fraud case or other criminal matter in Pattaya, Bangkok, or anywhere else in Thailand, please contact Thailand Bail now for our review and assessment of your case.

The Case that Started a Case

At Thailand Bail, we thrive on complicated legal matters with confusing story lines. Why? Because we take the time to review all details, no matter if it is at night or on the weekend if the issue is urgent. For this case, Thailand Bail’s client (Ms. Tatiana* (not her real name)) had been assisting another Russian (Mr. Yuri* (not his real name)) in finding legal representation for his case. Mr. Yuri had been arrested at one of the international airports in Bangkok on the charge of possession of a firearm. Not understanding the Thai language or the Thai legal system, Yuri was sent from the police station to the prison before bail could be arranged. (Please note, at this time, Thailand Bail was not representing anyone in this case). Stuck in prison, his family in Russia contacted other Russian friends to try to find a lawyer for Yuri. Tatiana was able to find a lawyer who came to do the bail, and Yuri was released. However, after bail was completed, this lawyer was not interested in managing the case, so Yuri again asked for help finding a lawyer. Tatiana again helped locate a second lawyer, who worked on the case, which ended up with a guilty plea and a suspended sentence. However, over the course of the several months the criminal case was ongoing, Yuri allegedly paid the equivalent of over 4,000,000 Thai baht for legal fees. He did not ask any questions before getting the no-prison result from the court, but after the court case was over, he threatened legal action against his friends who had helped him locate a lawyer.

The 4,000,000 Baht Fraud Case

In Thailand, there are two (2) ways to have a criminal case. The first is when the police suspect a crime has happened and make an arrest. If the investigating officer thinks a crime had happened, he or she recommends the case to the public prosecutor within 84 days. If the public prosecutor thinks a crime has been committed, then he or she sends the indictment to the court, and a case proceeds. However, in this case, this is not what happened.

The second way to have a criminal case is if a private lawyer or a law firm researches, writes, and sends the indictment to the court himself or herself. If the court believes there is enough evidence to allow a case to proceed, it will do so, and the criminal case process goes forward in a similar way to the first kind of criminal case, except the plaintiff is represented by a lawyer / law firm and not the public prosecutor.

For this case, it was the latter, with a private lawyer representing the plaintiff. This often is more difficult than fighting a case from the public prosecutor, because most private lawyers only have around 10 cases ongoing at the same time compared to around 100+ that a public prosecutor might have. This means that the private lawyer should have more time to dedicate to preparing for the trial.

Defending our client in this case was not easy. The plaintiff’s lawyer did a good job finding evidence against our client, but we also prepared sufficient evidence to defend against the charges successfully. It required over 300 hours of preparation time on our part over the course of several months, but through a diverse, international team of old, experienced lawyers, young, energetic lawyers, and international case specialists, Thailand Bail did an excellent job in trial, convincing the judges that our client was not guilty. For more details on how we won this case, please contact Thailand Bail, and we would be happy to discuss how we can use this winning strategy on a case you have in Thailand.