Police hunt ‘blind’ beggar caught driving vehicle
A blind beggar whose exploits recently went viral after he was seen driving an SUV to “work” at a Nonthaburi market may face legal action for fraud, police said.
The clip, first posted by Facebook user Chutala Joy on Tuesday, showed a man wearing ragged clothes getting out of a black Toyota Fortuner with Bangkok licence plates at Wat
Don Sakae in Nonthaburi’s Bang Yai district.
The man was later seen posing as a blind man at a nearby market, wearing jet-black glasses and begging for money.
The clip drew the police’s attention. Amid the wave of criticism directed at the man, some netizens thought he might be an intelligence officer, staking out a target while posing as blind man.
Pol Col Surapoj Rodbamrung, head of Bang Yai police, said if the man in the video is found to be begging under false pretenses, he could be charged for violating Section 16 of the Beggar Control Act. The offence carries a fine of up to 1,000 baht and/ or a year in jail.
Several reports claimed the police identified the beggar as Somporn Kueyen, a 65-year-old resident of Muang district who lives in a twostorey townhouse with his wife. Reporters visited the place and found it was fitted with air con and looked too upmarket a place for a supposed beggar.
The couple has two daughters — one lives abroad, while the other is on the teaching staff at a local university. Neither Mr Somporn nor his wife returned home after the clip made headlines yesterday, the reports said. They also claimed the couple was due to meet Bang Yai police yesterday. Neighbours said Mr Somporn usually leaves his house around 3-4am each day and returns at night.