A woman who complained that 1.5 tonnes of substandard condoms she was drying for "recycling" had been set on fire has been charged with illegally storing hazardous waste.
Part of the 1.5 tonnes of condoms left unattended in Ayutthaya, and then set on fire on Monday. (Photo by Sunthorn Pongpao)
The 38-year-old woman on Tuesday asked police in Ayutthaya province to find the person who set fire to the 1.5 tonnes of condoms she had left unattended to dry on a block of land she owns.
Naphat Menthong, owner of the 1.5 tonnes of faulty condoms.
Instead she was charged with illegally bringing in and storing hazardous garbage.
Naphat Menthong, from Bang Pa-in district of Ayutthaya, met with police at the Bang Ban station in the same province to confirm that she owned the large pile of condoms left to be dry in the sun on the empty land in Bang Ban district. Part of the condom heap was burned.
She told police she had spent 30,000 baht buying substandard and unused condoms from a factory at the Navanakorn Industrial Estate at 20 baht per kilogramme. She had left them on the land for almost a year, waiting to resell them to a recycling factory in Samut Sakhon province.
She wanted police to find the person who had set the condoms ablaze on Monday.
Police filed her complaint, but Suphat Satrukhram, the health director of Maha Phram sub-district, asked them to prosecute the woman for bringing hazardous garbage into the district without authorisation.
Local authorities demand the woman pay for the incineration of the condoms at the Bang Pa-in Industrial Estate.