Daughter gets 20 years for stealing from mum

Phra Khanong Criminal Court yesterday handed down a 20-year prison sentence to a daughter of an 85-year-old woman based on forgery and the theft of more than 250 million baht while she was bed-ridden.

The court also ordered, Mawadee Sriwirat, 56, to return money totalling 123 million baht to her mother, Huay Sriwirat.

The ruling was delivered at Phra Khanong Criminal Court in response to a lawsuit filed by prosecutors and Ms Huay in 2019 against her daughter and four Kasikorn Bank employees for theft and forgery, causing damage of more than 250 million baht.

The mother’s lawyer, Jatuporn Chanasit, said the authorisation for withdrawing money out of her bank account only required her signature.

But, in 2014, Ms Huay was admitted to hospital with coronary artery disease. Her daughter then allegedly conspired with the four to change the authorisation for withdrawing money from the two accounts from her signature to a fingerprint, he said.

About 253 million baht was then taken out through hundreds of withdrawals.

The court found her guilty of 84 counts of forgery, using forged documents and theft. A 20-year sentence was then handed down to her, with an order to return 123 million baht.

Among the four bank employees, one of them was handed two years in jail without suspension, while the three others were acquitted.

A source said Ms Huay also filed a civil suit at Phra Khanong Civil Court against Mawadee, Kasikorn Bank and four employees, asking for 350 million baht in compensation. The case is being deliberated in court.

On Nov 1, the Appeal Court upheld the ruling of the lower court to hand down a 12-year prison term against Mawadee without suspension for theft in an effort to gradually withdraw from her mother’s account more than 24 million baht each time in 2017.