Twenty-five tourists who paid for a package holiday to Russia were left stranded at Suvarnabhumi airport yesterday after the man who sold them the package pocketed almost one million baht.
Jessada Honghin, 32, chief tour guide with a travel company, was arrested. Police said he later admitted he took money from the customers and spent it on himself.
The disappointed tourists, most of them senior citizens looking forward to a five-star leisure trip to Russia, yesterday filed their complaint with Suvarnabhumi airport police around 10am.
Thanat Kasdier, 61, said most of the group were retirees and wanted to reward themselves for their hard work with an overseas trip.
They bought the tour through Mr Jessada on the recommendation of a friend who previously bought a package from him without any problem.
They thought they were going to Moscow and Sergiev-Posad in Russia. Each was charged 39,000 baht with the trip scheduled for May 4-10, leaving Bangkok with Qatar Airways at 10am yesterday.
Ms Thanat said the package seemed reasonable, and included accommodation and visits to tourist attractions, so she transferred the money to Mr Jessada.
Unfortunately, when Ms Thanat and the other travellers went to check in at the airport the company gave them the bad news, informing them Mr Jessada had not paid for their accommodation and no programme was prepared for them.
They had only the round-trip ticket to Moscow.
One of the tourists managed to contact Mr Jessada and asked him to come to the airport, and he was arrested when he arrived.
Mr Jessada, who was under the influence of alcohol when he was detained, later admitted to police he had spent the money on himself and did not make arrangements for the tour, officers said.
Meanwhile, a 67-year-old retiree from Buri Ram, identified only as Jamjan, said she had earlier bought a five-day tour package to Russia from the suspect and was charged 39,000 baht as well.
There was no problem at that time. After returning to Thailand, she and other customers who went on the trip persuaded their friends, mostly elderly people, to buy the package from Mr Jessada due to the reasonable price.
However, after transferring money to Mr Jessada and arriving at the airport for this trip, she and other customers found the man had not arranged the tour programme as promised so they filed a complaint against him, Ms Jamjan said.
Pol Maj Gen Thammanoon Traithippong, commander of Samut Prakan police, said an initial investigation found Mr Jessada knew the tour business well and easily cheated his customers as he also worked as a chief of tour guides at a tour company.
He came up with the tour scam to Russia and had embezzled almost one million baht, the police commander said.
Investigators from other police stations were also sent to question the complainants at Samut Prakan station.
Mr Jessada was charged with operating a tour business without a permit, and fraud, Pol Maj Gen Thammanoon added.