Panusak earlier on Wednesday filed a lawsuit at the Bangkok’s Central Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct Cases over the DSI’s raids in which more than 30 vehicles were seized. The court scheduled an initial hearing on June 27.

Crime Suppression Division officers then arrested him at 3pm in front of the court reportedly on a public fraud charge. He was then brought to the division’s head office to be questioned.

The May raids were part of an ongoing DSI investigation into the evasion of taxes on car imports and the theft of vehicles in Britain.

Panusak had previously sued 12 DSI officers in a civil lawsuit demanding Bt50-million compensation at the Southern Bangkok Civil Court because the “unlawful” raids and impounding of cars at his two showrooms had dealt his company a heavy financial blow.

He said all of the luxury cars impounded by the DSI had been imported in accordance with proper procedures.

On Tuesday, a source at the DSI said that the UK-based National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service (NaVCIS) had learned that Panusak had opened a company to buy luxury cars in Britain that had not been fully paid for on instalment plans to be sent for sale in Thailand. When the cars were sold, owners were paid enough money to repay their car-finance companies.

NaVCIS was also quoted on Tuesday by DSI chief Pol Colonel Paisit Wongmuang as having confirmed that 13 cars the DSI had seized, including some confiscated from Panusak’s showrooms, were suspected to have been stolen in Britain.

The DSI was preparing to file charges related to tax evasion against the importers and people allegedly involved in fraudulent import declarations of an initial batch of 32 luxury cars after the Customs Department submits a tax assessment report to the DSI on Friday.