“I flew down to lead the arrest team as soon as I received the complaint about this,” Pol Col Sipaketh Kruewattanaset, Deputy Chief of the Royal Thai Police Crime Suppression Division (CSD) in Bangkok, told The Phuket News today (Aug 22).
CSD officers, working together with Tourist police in Phuket, arrested 24-year-old Chatrin “Stan” Tongteerakul arrested at a home on 50 Pi Rd, on the foothills behind Patong, last Wednesday (Aug 24).
Chatrin was presented to the press in Bangkok on Saturday (Aug 27).
When police raided the Patong home, they found Chatrin in possession of a .40 calibre Glock handgun with 76 bullets and a Remington 12-gauge shotgun with four cartridges.
Officers also found a Crime Suppression Police uniform and a fake police identification card recognising Chatrin as a Phuket Provincial Police corporal and presenting him as the head of the Provincial Police investigation division in Phuket.
This was not the first time Chatrin had been caught impersonating a police officer, Col Sipaketh reported.
“Chatrin had previously been charged with impersonating a police officer in Khon Kaen,” he said.
“He was caught there and charged and punished, but then he went to Phuket about nine months ago and started doing the same thing,” Col Sipaketh added.
Chatrin told the press on Saturday the had an accident about three years ago which prevented him from being accepted as a police cadet.
“I used to help police with using computers and I really want to be a policeman,” Chatrin said.
He also denied extorting cash from businesses.
Col Sipaketh urged people with any related complaints to call the Crime Suppression Division hotline at Tel: 1195 (24 hours).