Mr Cheewapap told The Phuket News today that he preferred not to disclose at this stage the names of the 20 people accused of illegal possession of land inside the park’s boundaries. But he said the cases would be forwarded to the Provincial Land Department with the aim of bringing against those named as owners charges of encroachment and distorting the land paper issuing procedures.
Mr Cheewapap said that officials from National Anti-Corruption Commission and the Department of Special Investigations were helping to investigate the 20 new cases he has uncovered.
Meanwhile, he said, he expects that five of his predecessors accused of involvement in the corrupt issue of titles for land inside the park – Thanapong Apaiso, Somkiet Soonthornpitakboon, Sukkhee Kamnuanslip, Jaruai Injan and Notawit Jaturabanthid – will be summoned to appear at police stations in Tah Chat Chai and Cherng Talay Police station to answer charges.
“We have to check the fine details of some of the data, and we will continue to investigate them.”
He also gave an update on the earlier cases from Mr Damrong’s investigations.
“For the Pullman Arcadia Nai Thorn Resort, one of the land titles has already been cancelled and we are still investigating [the others]. We have to do this very carefully and the Royal Forestry Department has to investigate to great depths.
“Three Dolphins [owners of the Trisara hotel] has one land paper for five rai, but this was based on an original document which was for two rai next to the park. Apparently the area in the document was inflated at some stage.
“We have yet to come to any firm conclusion about the Andaman White Beach Resort [south of Naithon Beach] but we have confirmed that some of the land at West Sands [next to the airport] belongs to the park. But they have not built anything on it.”
Still in the frame are two resorts at the top end of Layan Beach, the Layan Beach Resort and Bandarika, which recently changed hands. In Layan beach, two lands were already sold which were in the National Park.
The Imperial Adamas, which was earlier cleared of any wrongdoing, is still under investigation, he said.
The nearby abandoned Peninsula Resort, however, was definitely a case of encroachment.
The La Colline development, he noted, had encroached on about five rai of National Park land, and “We are filing a case report.”
Speaking about Frenchman Bernard Gaulthier’s house next to Trisara, Mr Cheewapap said it had been found that two rai from the seven surrounding the property encroaches into the park. In addition, he alleged that Mr Gaulthier had never received permission to build a jetty that juts out from the property.
“We asked to see the documents. His lawyer asked for one or two days to present the papers but we have not seen any yet.”
“We are filing criminal cases against Mr Gaulthier over the jetty and for using an illegal ownership certificate, and we have filed for cancellation of the land deeds with the Land Department.”
Asked for his reaction to news that Mr Gaulthier plans to sue the government because the papers were issued by a government department, Mr Cheewapap said, “He can’t sue the government. He can sue the people involved in the issue of documents, but most of them have already retired.”