Meanwhile national police chief Pol General Chakthip Chaijinda said he already knew which senior police officer had pressured the case investigators to release the impounded cars to a business operator, but he declined to elaborate pending further investigation.

A source at the Metropolitan Police Bureau’s investigation team said 204 cars worth Bt60 million that had been impounded since November by Thung Song Hong police from a local mall’s parking lot were mostly vehicles pawned by punters in Tak’s Mae Sot border district gambling dens.

Many of these automobiles were also involved in leasing issues because their owners had failed to continue making payments to their car-finance providers.

Pressure from working on this vehicle-seizure case was allegedly a factor that drove Pol Captain Thawee Meunrak to shoot himself to death last week, besides personal problems.

A fact-finding panel on Thawee’s suicide, set up by Metropolitan Police Area 2 chief Pol Maj-General Charoen Srisalak, is expected to conclude its findings this Friday for submission to the city police chief.

The investigation into the car-seizure case initially found that a wealthy used-car dealer in Bangkok’s Lak Si district, referred to as “Sia Meng”, had his two young relatives rent the parking lot to keep the cars. After a Chon Buri car-rental service traced one of its rental vehicles’ GPS device to the parking lot, it filed a police complaint, resulting in the police search and impounding of the vehicles in question.

Alleged financing scam

Sia Meng’s two relatives, whose names appear on the parking-lot lease contract, were facing a charge of illegal car financing, and police were trying to determine if Sia Meng and a business partner were also involved in the illegal activities.

“Police initially found that these cars would be assigned other cars’ licences and be resold via social media at one-third of their actual value, if owners failed to redeem them,” the source said.

According to Metropolitan Police Area 2 deputy chief Pol Colonel Khomsak Sumangkaset, in his capacity as head of the car-seizure investigation, said police had identified 20 car-finance companies and 22 individuals as damaged persons.

The 10-strong police team is in the process of checking ownership of the cars so as to return them to the damaged persons, whom police will also summon for additional information soon. Khomsak affirmed that police would act according to the law and give importance to the car owners, while he denied speculation that the investigation team was under pressure. His comment was surprisingly calm, as the law allows finance companies to repossess vehicles if they lodge a complaint within 90 days of finding out about suspected theft or embezzlement. In this case, the deadline is February 28.

Meanwhile, Anuchart Deeprasert, chairman of the Thai Hire-Purchase Association and an executive at Thanachart Bank, said that under hire-purchase contracts, vehicle owners who are in debt to finance companies are not allowed to refinance with other providers.

As well, after the police have completed their legal actions, they have to return those vehicles to the hire-purchase companies that are the creditors. After that the companies will contact the borrowers who brought those vehicles for refinancing with a gambling-den owner over the loan payments due.

If the borrowers are able to pay the lenders all that is owed, they can keep the vehicles until the end of the loan contract. But if the borrowers are unable to pay the outstanding debt, the lenders will take action against them and repossess the vehicles.