Crime
Daughter Gets 20 Years for Stealing Millions From her 85-Year-Old Mother
The daughter of an 85-year-old woman has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for stealing more than 250 million baht ($7.2 million) from her bedridden mother. Ms. Mawadee Sriwirat, 56, was also ordered to return 123 million baht ($3.5 million) to her mother.
Prosecutors filed the case against Mawadee and four Kasikornbank employees in 2019 for theft and forgery, causing more than 250 million baht ($7.2 million) in damages.
Mr. Jatuporn Chanasit, the plaintiff’s lawyer, told reporters that the authorization for withdrawing money from her bank account only required her signature.
However, the plaintiff was admitted to the hospital in 2014 with coronary artery disease. He claims her daughter conspired with four bank employees to change the authorization for withdrawing money from two accounts from her mother’s signature to a fingerprint.
A total of 253 million baht ($7.3 million) was then withdrawn via hundreds of withdrawals.
Mawadee was found guilty on 84 counts of forgery, using forged documents, and theft. One of the bank employees was sentenced to two years in prison without the possibility of parole, while the other three were acquitted.
According to a source, Ms Huay Sriwirat also filed a civil lawsuit against her daughter, Kasikornbank, and the four employees, seeking compensation in the amount of 350 million baht US$10.1 million). The case is still pending in civil court.
On November 1, the Appeal Court upheld a lower court ruling that sentenced Mawadee to 12 years in prison for withdrawing approximately 24 million baht ($693,000) from her mother’s accounts over the course of 2017.
