Five traffic police officers have been dismissed over their alleged involvement in a fraudulent ticketing scam.
The officers are accused of malpractice and corruption by embezzling thousands of baht in traffic fines.
During an initial investigation, auditors found 25 receipt books for traffic fines issued in January and February which had not been filled out with the dates, details of the infringements and the signatures of the officers.
The amount of money collected from traffic violators also failed to match the receipts. For example, receipts for 1,000-baht fines were found to correspond with only 500 baht being added to the division's coffers.
A total of 100 receipt books were also found to have been stolen from the division since Oct last year.
The dismissed officers were identified as Pol Lt Col Suradech Langhom, Pol Lt Alongkot Kaewthai, Pol Lt Usanee Jullapho, Pol Sen Sgt Maj Siri Thipprasert and Pol Sen Sgt Nopphadol Srithadee. All were attached to the Traffic Police Division 3.
Traffic Police Division commander Apisit Muangkasem said the five officers have been dismissed pending the outcome of the investigation.
A disciplinary panel has been set up to look into the issue. If the men are found not guilty, they could be reinstated.
The dismissals came after the Office of Internal Audit at the Royal Thai Police randomly audited traffic fines collected by Traffic Police Division 3 and found several irregularities, Pol Maj Gen Apisit said.
The office also launched investigations into the accounting of other divisions under the supervision of the Traffic Police Division, Pol Maj Gen Apisit said.
No other officers have so far been implicated in malpractice, he added.
“As for the internal audit carried out by the RTP, the Traffic Police Division also instructed all units to give full cooperation to auditors by providing relevant documents to ensure transparency,” he said.