BANGKOK, March 22 (TNA) – Police arrested two Russian nationals in Pattaya for allegedly forging documents for visa extension.
Pol Gen Visanu Prasarttong-Osoth, inspector-general of the Royal Thai Police Office, said police arrested Irina Prokacheva, 59, and Alexei Luptov, 63, at a house in Bang Lamung district.
There police found Thai banknotes, copies of passports and documents of Russian banks with the names of many Russians.
Pol Gen Visanu said that the suspects had forged financial statements of Russian banks. They opened a food page via vk.com to communicate with the Russian retirees who wanted to stay in Thailand.
The suspects forged documents for their customers to present at the Russian embassy in Thailand to seek certificates that they could use to have their visas extended. They charged a customer 2,000 baht.
Most customers did not meet visa extension criteria. For example, Pol Gen Visanu said, they did not have at least 800,000 baht in their bank accounts or their monthly salary did not reach 65,000 baht.
The police inspector-general said the suspects’ service could let criminals establish their illicit operations in tourist destinations like Pattaya. The suspects were initially charged with working in the country without permission. (TNA)
