The punishment was reduced to 16 years because 59-year-old Supachai – who had been in detention at Bangkok Remand Prison since his arrest – retracted his initial plea of innocence and confessed to the crime in court yesterday.

This verdict stemmed for a lawsuit filed last May charging Supachai had embezzled a total of Bt22.132 million over eight occasions in April-October 2013. Three other cases of alleged embezzlement and fraud against Supachai at the co-operative, resulting in losses of Bt20 billion, are pending the public prosecutors’ decision to indict.