Police raid illegal car pawnshop with high interest rates


Police raided an unlicensed car pawn shop that charged exorbitant interest rates, and found a large amount of evidence.

Today, Pol. Col. Porachai Chaloedet, Commander of Maha Sarakham Provincial Police, ordered the Chief of Investigation and officers to bring a search warrant from the Maha Sarakham Provincial Court, according to search warrant no. K.388/2567, to search a house in Kham Riang Subdistrict, Kantharawichai District, Maha Sarakham Province.

When arriving, they met Mr. Chanchatri, 30 years old, the owner of the house, so they showed the warrant and conducted a search. They found 3 cars parked in the garage in front of the house and 30 motorcycles of various brands parked inside the zinc garage, 2 motorcycles parked beside the garage, 4 motorcycles parked in the front yard, for a total of 36 motorcycles and 3 cars. The officers also searched Mr. Chanchatri’s bedroom and found 1 business card of the shop and 1 mobile phone. The police seized all of them.

From the inquiry, Mr. Chanchatri said that
the cars and motorcycles seized by the officers belong to customers who parked and pawned them with him. He admitted that he accepted cars and motorcycles as pawns from people he knew in Maha Sarakham Province, charging a 10% interest rate for pawning cars and a 7% interest rate for pawning motorcycles for 20 days. The parking fee per pawning is 500 baht.

Without ever having applied for permission to operate a personal loan business under the supervision of a government agency, and never having registered a juristic person to accept car pawns, and accepting each car pawn, never having made a pawn contract, but only recording the pawn details on the mobile phone, according to the list of seizures.

The officers therefore brought all the evidence to the Investigation Division of the Maha Sarakham Provincial Police for examination and verification. After that, legal action will be taken.

Source: Thai News Agency