The Criminal Court on Wednesday handed down prison terms totalling 12,640 years each to a married couple who ran a fake savings scheme, with victims reporting total losses of 1.3 billion baht.
The terms were commuted to 5,056 years because they confessed. The law limits their total prison time to 20 years each.
There were nine defendants in this case - Wantanee Tippaveth, her husband Methi Chinpha and seven others.
The court heard evidence that from March to Oct 2019, the nine defendants advertised on Facebook, inviting people to invest in a savings scheme offering a high return. The minimum investment was 1,000 baht. After nine months, investors would get a return of 930 baht plus the 1,000-baht - or 1,930 baht in total.
A total of 2,533 people joined the scheme. The total investment sum was 1.3 billion baht. It was alleged the nine defendants did not use the money for investment but shared it among themselves.
The prosecutors charged all nine with multiple counts of fraud.
The court found two of the nine defendants guilty as charged - Wantanee and Methi. The seven others were acquitted for lack of evidence.
