Thai beauty queen among 4 arrested for kidnapping Chinese man

BANGKOK – Thailand’s police arrested four Thais, including a beauty contestant, for kidnapping a wealthy Chinese national Wang Namfen, 34, and demanding a 4 million baht (S$155,000) ransom.

Police arrested former beauty contestant Phetcharada “Nam Phet” Saengsakul and her boyfriend Suphaporn “Boss” Halmun, as well as two other accomplices.

The case came to light on April 15 when Mr Wang’s friend, identified only as Mr Yu, filed a report at Lumpini police station, saying he was worried because he had not heard from Mr Wang for several days.

The police then launched an investigation and learned that three men had shown up at the victim’s flat on Sathorn Road and carried him out in a large plastic box.

They then drove him to Hua Hin in Ms Phetcharada’s BMW, where they beat him up and demanded he pay them 4 million baht for his freedom.

Police officers from both Thonglor and Lumpini reported that the suspects have confessed to kidnapping Mr Wang, who had previously been Ms Phetcharada’s boyfriend.

The beauty contestant said that Mr Wang had been very generous during their time together. She said that he had bought her the BMW and also gave her a monthly allowance of 100,000 baht.

The police said that Ms Phetcharada, knowing that her ex-boyfriend was very wealthy, conspired with her current boyfriend and other friends to kidnap Mr Wang and squeeze more money out of him.

Her new boyfriend reportedly does not have a steady job and is addicted to gambling.

While being detained in Hua Hin, Mr Wang was reportedly forced to transfer 2 million baht and then 900,000 baht to the bank account of an accomplice called Kob.

The victim made another transfer worth 1.03 million baht to the account of a woman identified only as Sarita.

The police say that they have recovered 2.3 million baht of the 3.93 million baht transferred by Mr Wang, so far. THE NATION/ASIA NEWS NETWORK