Photos courtesy of Bangkok Post
A group of policemen have been dismissed after allegedly pocketing the cash from roadside traffic fines.
Read the following story from the Bangkok Post to learn more about the scandal.
Five traffic police officers have been dismissed over their alleged involvement in a fraudulent ticketing scam. The officers are accused of malpractice and corruption by embezzling thousands of baht in traffic fines.
FINANCIAL FRAUD
During an initial investigation, auditors found 25 receipt books for traffic fines issued in January and February which had not been filled out with the dates, details of the infringements and the signatures of the officers.
The amount of money collected from traffic violators also failed to match the receipts. For example, receipts for 1,000-baht fines were found to correspond with only 500 baht being added to the division's coffers.
A total of 100 receipt books were also found to have been stolen from the division since October last year.
SUDDEN DISMISSAL
The dismissed officers were identified as Suradech Langhom, Alongkot Kaewthai, Usanee Jullapho, Siri Thipprasert and Nopphadol Srithadee. All were attached to the Traffic Police Division 3.
Traffic Police Division commander Apisit Muangkasem said the five officers have been dismissed pending the outcome of the investigation.
A disciplinary panel has been set up to look into the issue. If the men are found not guilty, they could be reinstated.
The dismissals came after the Office of Internal Audit at the Royal Thai Police randomly audited traffic fines collected by Traffic Police Division 3 and found several irregularities, Apisit said.
ADDITIONAL AUDIT
The office also launched investigations into the accounting of other divisions under the supervision of the Traffic Police Division, Apisit said. No other officers have so far been implicated in malpractice, he added.
“As for the internal audit carried out by the RTP, the Traffic Police Division also instructed all units to give full cooperation to auditors by providing relevant documents to ensure transparency,” he said.
Exercises
Specify whether each of the following words used is in the story as a verb, adverb, noun or adjective.
1. ensure
……………….
2. launched
……………….
3. relevant
……………….
4. only
……………….
Vocabulary
- malpractice (n): careless, wrong or illegal behaviour while in a professional job
infringement (n): the action of breaking a law or rule
transparency (n): operating an organisation in a way that allows its actions to be observed
