HUA HIN - Policeon Wednesday arrested five Africans who were allegedly holding fake passports of various countries.
The five men were apprehended immediately after they arrived in the resort town of Prachuap Khiri Khan province in a van from Bangkok. They were identified as Angelr Ibekwa, 29, a Nigerian; Seyyid Zena Abdulai, 33, from Ghana; Kelvin Sesay, 34, a Sierra Leone national; Daka Nhamo, 32, a Zambian; and Simwkba Charles Tizaso, 32, also Zambian.
Thanet Sunthorasuk, chief of Prachuap Khiri Khan provincial police, said a financial institute tipped off the police that a group of foreigners opened bank accounts with fake passports.
Pol Maj Gen Thanet Sunthorasuk briefs the media in front of the five arrested African men. (Post Today photo)
Members of the group allegedly confessed that they were hired to open bank accounts throughout Hua Hin, receiving 5,000 baht per account. They purchased the passports at the Pratunam area in Bangkok for 5,000 to 10,000 baht apiece, Pol Maj Gen Thanet added.
Police suspected that the men planned to use fake passbooks of the banks for other frauds or business con games.
Pol Maj Gen Thanet said that Mr Nhamo and Mr Tizaso offered 90,000 baht as a bribe while they were being taken into custody at Hua Hin police station.
The police pretended to agree to the deal, he said. When both of them got the money, police officers arrested them for bribery in addition to their original charge.