BANGKOK, Thailand – Police have arrested a Turkish man and a former sales manager accused of torching a Bang Khae company to destroy documents tied to an alleged 10-million-baht embezzlement, with investigators saying the ex-employee paid her former boyfriend 10,000 baht to set the blaze.

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Colonel Pramote Chanboonkaew of Phetkasem Police Station led the arrests on 29 September under Criminal Court Thon Buri warrants. Emres Badas, 31, a Turkish national, was taken into custody at a condominium in the Din Daeng-Ratchaprarop area and charged with arson involving a building and property. Chanoknan, 40, known as Wan, was detained outside her Nong Khaem home and accused of hiring someone to commit arson.

The fire broke out in the early hours of 25 September at San Tech Center Co Ltd, a three-and-a-half-storey commercial building in the Sampheng 2 project, damaging about 90 per cent of the structure. Investigators found the blaze began at two document cabinets on the ground floor, where a strong petrol smell lingered and no electrical sockets were nearby, leading them to conclude it was deliberately set.

Company executives told police the cabinets held evidence being prepared for a legal case against Chanoknan, a former head of sales suspected of filing false sales figures and embezzling funds over a decade, with losses exceeding 10 million baht. CCTV reportedly showed a foreign man arriving on a hired motorcycle, cutting a lock and entering before the fire, which led police to Badas.

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Police said Badas confessed that Chanoknan, his former girlfriend, hired him to destroy the documents. He allegedly told investigators he rode to the site after filling up with petrol, siphoning it into two bottles and buying bolt cutters, then cut the lock, doused the cabinets, set them alight and fled. Chanoknan later admitted ordering the fire to destroy the evidence, police said, claiming the money went on personal expenses and full-body cosmetic surgery.

-Thailand News (TN)