BANGKOK: -- The Chaiyaphum Provincial Court has sentenced a rice miller to serve 20 years in prison and nine farmers six months after finding them in rice pledging fraud conspiracy involving the missing of 750 tonnes of paddy and rice from government stocks.
Accused by police and sued in the court is the owner of Nopporn rice mill in Ban Kwao district after 621 tonnes of paddy and 129 tonnes of white rice worth 11 million baht went missing from the warehouse of the mill which joined the previous government’s rice pledging scheme.
Investigations by the police revealed conspiracy between the miller and a number of farmers to cheat the government.
Charges include falsifying official documents, falsify rice vouchers with no rice in stocks, removal of rice in government stocks for multiple pledging, causing 750 tons of paddy and white rice to go missing from government stocks.
The nine farmers were sentenced to six months in prison for the frauds. But they were given two years probation for the imprisonment sentence.
However for the miller, he faced embezzlement charge for the 750 tonnes of rice and paddy which went missing.
The court handed down 20 years in prison with no probation.
The miller can appeal the verdict to the Appeals Court.