Arrest Warrant Issued for Lawyer Who Allegedly Cheated 14-year-old Pattarada “Beam” Kaewpong Out of Bt4 Million Compensation

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BANGKOK – An Arrest warrants have been issued for disqualified lawyer Pisit Sammalert and two accomplices over their alleged roles in cheating a 14-year-old road-accident victim out of Bt4 million compensation, Bangkok City police chief Lt-General Sanit Mahathavorn said on Wednesday.

The Taling Chan Court issued the arrest warrants on Tuesday for Pisit and two women identified as Pornpaveen Chukaew and Thitapa or Pattharawadee Sawasdee, Sanit said.

Pasit and Pornpaveen were accused of forging and using forged document to cheat Pasit’s pro-bono client Porntip Chantharat, 44, and her wheelchair-bound 14-year-old daughter Pattarada “Beam” Kaewpong out of Bt4 million compensation following a 2005 road accident. Thitapa was accused of aiding and abetting the wrongdoing.

A truck crashed into a pickup carrying Porntip’s family, killing her husband. Porntip and Pattarada were seriously injured. Spinal injuries sustained in the accident force Pattarada to use a wheelchair.

The Lawyers Council of Thailand last week stripped Pisit’s name from its list of qualified practitioners on the grounds that he’d been declared insolvent following the news he allegedly cheated the family.

Porntip had claimed that, after a court ordered the truck’s owner to pay her family the compensation, Pisit, their lawyer, persuaded her to sign papers authorising him to handle all related matters, including collecting her monthly compensation payments, as a convenience to her.

She ended up receiving just only Bt200,000.

She lodged a complaint against the lawyer in 2015, but said he persuaded her to withdraw it by promising to give her Bt3 million, a promise he allegedly has not kept.

By Jessada Chantharak
The Nation