Chinese eyewear counterfeiter posed as Buddhist studies student to get a visa to live in Thailand in Buriram

January 26, 2021 at 8:06 pm
by News Desk
in Crime, Personal, Thai World, Thailand
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The order to transfer Police Major Jakkrapong Phermkamlang, the officer deemed responsible for the failure, was made by Police Lieutenant General Sompong Chingduang on Tuesday after an investigation showed that a number of visas were issued to men in white robes at the address of a Buddhist temple in the Northeast of Thailand.

An internal probe within the Immigration Bureau identified a senior officer in Buriram as responsible for a visa being issued to a Chinese counterfeiter arrested in Thon Buri last week. The visa was for Buddhist studies and was accompanied by a picture of the 42-year-old man in a white robe at a local temple which was also the address submitted with the application.

immigration-officer-out-chinese-counterfeiter-posed-as-buddhist-studies-student — On Tuesday, it was announced the Immigration Bureau boss, Police Lieutenant General Sompong Chingduang (right), had moved a senior officer and inspector in Buriram, Police Major Jakkrapong Phermkamlang (centre) to an inactive post after a Chinese counterfeiter was found to have obtained a visa by posing as a Buddhist studies student.

A senior police officer with the Immigration Bureau has been transferred to an inactive post after an investigation into a visa granted to a Chinese man in June last year to remain in the kingdom for 1 year to study Buddhist dhamma.

Police Major Jakkrapong Phermkamlang was identified as the officer responsible for the visa issued by the Buriram Immigration Bureau office to 42-year-old Changli Li who was arrested last week at a warehouse in the Thon Buri area of Bangkok in Dao Khanong.

Millions of counterfeit glasses found in Thon Buri by officers with the Department of Special Investigation

Officers with the Department of Special Investigation found millions of designer glasses, which had all been counterfeited, destined for sale on the black market.

Police following up on the man’s background discovered that he had been granted a visa to live in Thailand to pursue Buddhist religious studies.

This is understood to have led officers to discover a number of visas with a Buddhist temple listed as an address in the kingdom linked with the applications made by white-robed men at the religious centre in the Northeast of the country. Among them was Mr Changli whose visa was approved on June 11th 2020.

Buriram officer deemed responsible for the failure

The enquiry found that proper regulations and procedures in approving the visa by the local Immigration Bureau office had not been followed and local inspector, Police Major Jakkrapong was identified as the person responsible.

The transfer of the senior officer to an inactive post at the operations centre of the Immigration Bureau was ordered and signed by Police Lieutenant General Sompong Chingduang, the Commissioner of the force.