A Thong Lor police officer has
denied an allegation of receiving a bribe after a woman posted on
Facebook that he let her pay off her ticket by transferring money to his
bank account yesterday.
Facebook
user, and professional “pretty” with 30,000 followers, Kangsadarn
Warnchaun made a public post of a screenshot from her online banking
activity that showed she transferred THB500 cash to the personal account
of a Thong Lor officer named Nipat Panpamnak after she was given a
ticket for parking in a prohibited area yesterday morning.
"The
officer was so nice. He booted my car and offered that I could pay
online. Oohhh! Such a good, honest policeman #applaud,” the caption
said. The website of Police Education Bureau identified Pol.Snr.Sgt.Maj.
Nipat as a traffic officer of Thonglor Police Department.
The
post went viral and sparked online comments about the corruption of the
Thai police as well as the less-than-intelligent behavior of Kangsadarn
for posting evidence of her own unethical and illegal behavior.
She
has not removed the post and says that she won’t.When contacted by the
press, Nipat claimed that the woman deliberately asked if she could
transfer the fine to his bank account because she didn’t have any cash
with her and had to go to work.
The officer said he only tried to help her and now feels very bad about what happened.
Pol.
Lt. Col. Wasut Chuaput, deputy superintendent of Thonglor police, said
that Nipat had good intentions and he is very stressed from seeing the
story all over the media.Wasut said Nipat will have to write a detailed
report of the incident to his commander and that the matter is still
being investigated, Thairath
reported.Meanwhile, despite her sarcastic caption, Kangsadarn
apologized to the public for causing a misunderstanding and ensured that
they money transferred was not a bribe.“I only paid THB500, the amount
stated on my ticket.
He did not ask me for a bribe and I did not pay it. Please do not misunderstand. Sorry, everybody,” she wrote today.
