Police entrance exam cancelled over scandal: Arrests made

[Khun Don]

Police entrance exam cancelled over scandal
PRASIT TANGPRASERT,
KWANHATHAI MALAKAN
THE NATION June 13, 2012 1:00 am

Provincial Police Region 3 chief Pol Lt-General Panu Kerdlarppol said yesterday that officials were possibly behind the leakage of police entrance examination papers after a scam was recently uncovered in which civilians wishing to get into a police constabulary school in Si Sa Ket were caught cheating.

This week applicants in Nakhon Ratchasima were found with a vibrating device that was used to indicate answers to multiple-choice questions. This led to the arrest of six people who were allegedly given Bt10.5 million in cash from 30 applicants.

Police spokesman Piya Uthayo said yesterday that the police had decided to cancel entrance exams across the country because officials had found convincing evidence of cheating. It has not been decided when the new test will be held, he said, adding that four panels had been set up to further investigate the case and find ways to prevent cheating in the future.

Panu said suspects implicated Lampang provincial administrative organisation president-hopeful Dachai Uchukosonkan in their testimony, which led to his arrest. Police are also on the hunt for a key accomplice. It is believed that other people were also involved because those sending signals to the vibrating devices would have had to be within a 300-metre radius. Also, police suspect that the gang knew the answers because an insider leaked the exam paper, he said.

However, National Police Chief General Priewpan Damapong yesterday insisted that the exam papers had not been leaked, but that a member of the gang was inside the exam room and had signalled the correct answers to people outside who then passed it on to other applicants.

He said a large network, based in the vicinity of Bangkok's Ramkhamhaeng University, was behind this case and that some police officials might be involved. Priewpan added that this gang had made a lot of money from this scam and that police would gather evidence to punish wrongdoers.

A source from the police investigation team said the network covered the entire nation and might have had something to do with such cases in other provinces, after five suspects testified that the network had been operating for a long time and had leaked exam papers at other state agencies. An investigation found that the ringleader bought a master copy of examination papers at Bt3 million per set for a few hours before copies were printed hours before the examination.

Although exam papers were divided into eight separate sets to prevent cheating, the gang set different codes to identify which set they were sending answers for, the source said.

This was more plausible instead of having someone take the test and send signals to an outsider to re-send the answers to other applicants.

Investigators also found a list of names of civil servants who had paid to pass tests and been given work in state agencies, the source added.

Pol Maj-General Jakthip Holasutsakul, deputy chief of the Provincial Police Region 3, said that in the Nakhon Ratchasima case, the 30 applicants had been trained on the vibration signal one day before the exam.

[PakDude]

I for one am deeply shocked to learn of corruption within the Royal Thai Police force.

[Marie]

It's incredible how they have systemized cheating! Seems so hard to lick the leakers (pun not unintentional)!

[Khun Don]

Networks 'won't cheat justice'
Published: 14/06/2012 at 01:48 AMNewspaper section: News


Police have vowed a swift crackdown on exam cheating services operating across the country.

National police chief Priewpan Damapong said the cheating is a widespread problem. Networks are finding clients not only for the police non-commissioned school exam but for other entrance exams for state posts.

Pol Gen Priewpan said he intends to implement tough measures to root out the networks.

'No none will be spared prosecution, big fish or not," he said.

The police have launched a large-scale investigation after many cheats and service providers were caught in the police school's entrance exam in several provinces on Sunday.

The police chief said those operating the cheating service appear to fall into two groups.

One employs academically capable people including tutors from private tutorial centres to sit in exams. They work out answers which they memorise and then leave the exam room early.

The tutors draw up a list of answers, which other members of the gang transmit to the applicants back in the exam room.

The applicants receive the answers through a communication device they carry secretly on them.

The other involves forging identification cards of applicants and sitting the exam for them.

Pol Gen Priewpan said the two groups appear to operate separately yet command large networks.

He said investigators were looking into claims that some of the tutors in the Ramkhamhaeng area of Bangkok may have colluded with other gangs.

Police are gathering evidence to weed out the gangs which have generated hundreds of millions of baht from the illegal enterprise.

The police chief has appointed committees headed by senior officers to address the problem.

Police spokesman Pol Maj Gen Piya Uthayo said the gangs have a complex system of rewarding their members, similar to a direct-sales scheme.

He said the gangs even posted messages on Facebook offering to hire people to take exams for applicants.

Yesterday, police issued warrants for the arrest of three more suspects believed to be technicians who sent radio signals indicating the test answers.

Six suspected gang members have been apprehended so far including Dachai Uchukosolkarn, a Lampang provincial administration organisation candidate.

Mr Dachai insisted he did not know Tueanjai Pongpan, who was among the first five suspects arrested. They implicated Mr Dachai who denied any involvement.

After evidence of the fraud was uncovered, Sunday's police exam results were declared invalid on Tuesday.

Dates for a new round of exams for all applicants nationwide have not yet been announced.

BANGKOK POST

[Khun Don]

Warrant out for key man in exam scam
Published: 15/06/2012 at 06:39 PMOnline news: Local News

The Nakhon Ratchasima Provincial Court on Friday issued an arrest warrant for a sixth suspect, alleged to be the key culprit, in the cheating scandal surrounding Sunday's admission exam for the non-commissioned police officer school.

The suspect was identified as Wibulsak Saenjak, 29, a Lampang native.

This suspect has key information about the rest of the people in the gang behind the exam scam, said Lampang police chief Pol Maj Gen Pornchai Pakpongsri. Police had already searched one of the suspect’s houses, but had not found any important evidence.

Lampang police were seeking search warrants for other houses owned by the suspect and hoped a search would shed further light on the scam.

Four applicants for NCO school were earlier detained with communication devices believed to have been used for cheating during the exam.

The four had implicated Mr Wibulsak as being a figure in the gang behind the scam, said Pol Maj Gen Pornchai.

On Thursday, Pol Lt Gen Panu Kerdlarppol, commissioner of Provincial Police Region 3, transferred Pol Capt Sananpol Kalyawatana-ngam, deputy inspector of Muang Si Sa Ket police station, and Pol Sen Sgt Maj Wachiranusorn Pongpan, a squad leader at the same station, to inactive positions at Provincial Police Region 3 headquarters.

Pol Sen Sgt Maj Wachiranusorn is the husband of Tueanjai Pongpan, one of six suspects already arrested in connection with the scam. Pol Capt Sananpol is said to also be close to her.

The transfers are effective for 30 days and intended to prevent both officers from obstructing the investigation.

Applicants have admitted paying 400,000-500,000 baht to the gang for the answers, which were transmitted by radio to gadgets concealed in their clothing as they sat in the exam room, police said.

BANGKOK POST

[Khun Don]

Warrant out for key man in exam scam
Published: 15/06/2012 at 06:39 PMOnline news: Local News

The Nakhon Ratchasima Provincial Court on Friday issued an arrest warrant for a sixth suspect, alleged to be the key culprit, in the cheating scandal surrounding Sunday's admission exam for the non-commissioned police officer school.

The suspect was identified as Wibulsak Saenjak, 29, a Lampang native.

This suspect has key information about the rest of the people in the gang behind the exam scam, said Lampang police chief Pol Maj Gen Pornchai Pakpongsri. Police had already searched one of the suspect’s houses, but had not found any important evidence.

Lampang police were seeking search warrants for other houses owned by the suspect and hoped a search would shed further light on the scam.

Four applicants for NCO school were earlier detained with communication devices believed to have been used for cheating during the exam.

The four had implicated Mr Wibulsak as being a figure in the gang behind the scam, said Pol Maj Gen Pornchai.

On Thursday, Pol Lt Gen Panu Kerdlarppol, commissioner of Provincial Police Region 3, transferred Pol Capt Sananpol Kalyawatana-ngam, deputy inspector of Muang Si Sa Ket police station, and Pol Sen Sgt Maj Wachiranusorn Pongpan, a squad leader at the same station, to inactive positions at Provincial Police Region 3 headquarters.

Pol Sen Sgt Maj Wachiranusorn is the husband of Tueanjai Pongpan, one of six suspects already arrested in connection with the scam. Pol Capt Sananpol is said to also be close to her.

The transfers are effective for 30 days and intended to prevent both officers from obstructing the investigation.

Applicants have admitted paying 400,000-500,000 baht to the gang for the answers, which were transmitted by radio to gadgets concealed in their clothing as they sat in the exam room, police said.

BANGKOK POST

[Khun Don]

2 officers moved in exam scam probe
10 gang networks found, 18 arrested

Published: 15/06/2012 at 01:33 AMNewspaper section: News

Two police officers in Si Sa Ket province have been transferred to inactive posts for having close connections with a suspect in the police exam cheating scam.

Pol Lt Gen Panu Kerdlarppol, commissioner of Provincial Police Region 3, yesterday transferred Pol Capt Sananpol Kalyawatana-ngam, deputy inspector of Muang Si Sa Ket police station, and Pol Sen Sgt Maj Wachiranusorn Pongpan, a squad leader of the same station, to inactive positions at Provincial Police Region 3 headquarters.

Pol Sen Sgt Maj Wachiranusorn is the husband of Mrs Tueanjai Pongpan, a suspect arrested in the scam. Pol Capt Sananpol is close to the woman.

The transfer will take effect for 30 days to prevent both officers from obstructing the investigation.

During the period, they must prove they have nothing to do with the scam. Both officers have met their supervisors at Provincial Police Region 3.

Police have arrested six suspects for being part of the scam, in which cheating was uncovered in entrance exams for non-commissioned police under the jurisdiction of Provincial Police Region 3 in the lower Northeast.

They have also seized about 10.9 million baht in cash collected from applicants. The suspects have been released on bail.

Police are hunting for another suspect, a 29-year-old man of Lampang province identified as Wibulsak Saenjak.

Police believe he coordinated the cheating with many networks of wrongdoers.

In Songkhla province, police have arrested 10 suspects in police entrance exam cheating there. Nine of them held fake ID cards to sit the exam last Sunday in place of real applicants.

They were recruited from Bangkok via Facebook. The other suspect was a coordinator, and all have been released on bail.

In Phatthalung province, police arrested two local women, aged 21 and 24, allegedly for training applicants who wanted to cheat in the police entrance exams in Chon Buri.

Police are also trying to identify customers of the gangs to disqualify them from the entrance examination.

Applicants paid 400,000-500,000 baht to the gangs for the answers, which were transmitted by electronic devices as they sat in the exam room.

Other applicants paid people recruited by the gangs to sit the exams for them.

Police spokesman Pol Maj Gen Piya Uthayo said about 10 networks running the scam had been identified, catering to more than 3,000 applicants.

In the future, applicants will have to pass metal detectors before entering exam rooms.

Meanwhile, Chuvit Kamolvisit, deputy chairman of the House committee on police affairs, said he suspects some police officers were involved.

He has asked the Royal Thai Police Office to raise the qualifications and age bar of applicants for the non-commissioned police school.

At present they must have completed high school, and be aged 18-27.

Mr Chuvit wants applicants to be graduates, aged at least 21. He said 18-year-olds were too young and even after they were trained at the police school for one year, they would still not be up to the task.

BANGKOK POST

[Khun Don]

Cops strive to catch cheats
Published: 16/06/2012 at 02:59 AMNewspaper section: News


Police will determine a single venue to hold a new entrance exam for non-commissioned officers on Monday to avoid a recurrence of cheating that marred last Sunday's examination.

The new location, which will be discussed in a meeting chaired by national police chief Pol Gen Priewpan Damapong, will be suited to having all applicants sit in the same room so they can be better monitored, a police source said.

Results of the exam held on June 10, which was held at 13 venues across the country, have been nullified after many participants were found to have cheated with the assistance of police officers.

Police are checking all the venues to obtain more clues. They are seeking evidence that might have been left on tables and chairs in the exam rooms.

The inspection is part of a large-scale investigation into suspected cheats. Police will check security cameras, exam papers and even such social media as Facebook which is suspected of being used as a channel of communication between applicants and those helping them to cheat, police spokesman Pol Maj Gen Piya Uthayo said.

"We've found more evidence, including documents of applicants and their parents," he said after a meeting of the investigative team, led by deputy national police chief Pol Gen Pansiri Prapawat.

In Nakhon Ratchasima, where six people suspected of being involved in the cheating have been arrested, investigators have probed 4,000 out of 36,000 exam papers. Of them, about 900 papers were found to be suspicious.

Meanwhile, the Nakhon Ratchasima Provincial Court has granted a warrant for the arrest of a male suspected of teaching applicants how to use electronic devices hidden under their clothes.

BANGKOK POST

[Khun Don]

Exam-cheat suspect helped 73 applicants, police say
THE NATION ON SUNDAY June 17, 2012 1:00 am


An investigation into police entrance-exam cheating at the Nakhon Ratchasima test site found that a key suspect, teacher Tuanjai Pongpan, kept a record of 73 people whom she had helped to cheat and pass the exams.

Six suspects including Si Sa Ket-based Tuanjai, 45, were arrested along with Bt10 million cash early last week following the discovery of cheating on police entrance exams. Police subsequently arrested Lampang politician Dachai Uchukosonkan, 42, and issued an arrest warrant for Dachai's aid Wibulsak Saenjak, 29, as well as another unidentified man who procured the gang's police applicant customers.

A police team led by Pol Lt-Colonel Phum Thongpho seized Tuanjai's three diaries, six bank books and four cell phones in Si Sa Ket. Police found the bank books showed 30 transactions of Bt50,000 and Bt100,000 deposits amounting to Bt10 million, suspected to be the applicants' payments to the gang.

The three diaries also yielded a 100-item list of applicant names, ID card numbers, payment details and exam sites. The list included several kinds of civil servant entrance exams, especially the police entrance exam in 2009, to which the gang sent 53 applicants, and the police entrance exam in 2011, to which the gang sent 20 applicants. Each applicant had to pay the gang around Bt300,000-Bt500,000 and all of the applicants were assisted to pass the tests by cheating. This year, according to the diaries, the gang sent 34 applicants, but they were busted.

Another police team yesterday apprehended suspected gang accomplice Chatchawal Sornchaiphum, 28, who worked at the Royal Thai Air Force's Quartermaster Directorate, Nakhon Ratchasima deputy police chief Pol Colonel Wachirawit Kritrittisak said. He went on to say that 21 applicants found to be wearing vibrating devices to receive exam answers, confessed to cheating and implicated Chatchawal as the person who invited them to cheat. He said the investigation didn't find evidence to confirm that the police exam papers had been leaked.

Police education commander Pol Lt-General Reungsak Jarit-ek said his office was working on a new round of entrance exams, to be finished within three months, to recruit 10,000 policemen from 280,000 applicants. They would be divided into 14 zones for speedy supervision and checking, and the exam would be held on more than one day, he added.

House Committee on Police Affairs chairman Somchai Lhosathapornpipit said the committee would late this month summon the police supervisors in the areas where cheating was discovered, and those organising the police exams, as well as the national police chief to inquire about cheating-prevention measures. He said the committee would probe the case, in which they suspected policemen might be involved.

In Songkhla, where 10 people were arrested for using fake ID cards to take police exams for money, police were gathering evidence for use in arrest warrants to be issued next week. They were investigating the Sri Nakarin district office, but officials insisted the ID cards weren't issued from there.

In Phitsanulok's Muang district, former soldier Metha Ong-ard, 37, was presented at a police press conference yesterday at 9am in relation to his alleged crime of duping at least 16 people out of Bt4,877,900 cash in 2010-2011. He is accused of falsely promising to place victims' children in military positions. The man, who was fired from military service due to police complaints of public fraud and then fled to Lampang, where he was arrested on Friday, was nearly assaulted by the enraged victims.

[Khun Don]

Police recruits cheating 'for 3 years'
'FOUND NOTEBOOKS REVEAL NAMES OF 73 PEOPLE WHO USED GANG'S SERVICES'

Published: 17/06/2012 at 01:36 AMNewspaper section: News


NAKHON RATCHASIMA : A gang alleged to have helped potential police recruits and other civil service applicants cheat on their entrance exams was involved in the scam for the past three years and assisted dozens of people, an investigator said yesterday.

Pol Lt Col Phum Thongpho, who led the Nakhon Ratchasima police team investigating the scam, said an examination of three notebooks owned by one the arrested suspects revealed more than 70 people had passed examinations for state official recruitment with the gang's assistance.

The notebooks belonged to Tueanjai Pongpan, a 45-year-old kindergarten teacher, who police believe was the gang's leader. She has been released on bail after her arrest in Nakhon Ratchasima last Sunday. Police found a list of 73 people who had allegedly used the gang's "services" and passed examinations required as part of the selection of civil servants, including non-commissioned police officers between 2009 and 2011, Pol Lt Col Phum said.

Of that number, 53 people were among those who had passed the exams held by the Office of Civil Service Commission and another examination organised to recruit non-commissioned police officers who were bachelor's degree holders in 2009, he said.

Twenty other customers were helped to pass similar exams last year at a cost of between 300,000 and 500,000 baht per person, said the lead police investigator.

A list of 34 customers in last Sunday's police exam was also found in Mrs Tueanjai's notebooks along with the name of a person who had passed the entrance examination to the Royal Police Cadet Academy, he said.

Also recorded in Mrs Tueanjai's notebooks were details of a woman who has paid 300,000 baht for the gang's assistance in helping her cheat on an examination to become an assistant district officer.

This customer, whose name has been withheld by police, had not paid the gang her last installment of 170,000 baht.

An inspection of Mrs Tueanjai's bank accounts showed more than 10 million baht had been transferred to her _ money which was believed to have come from fees paid by the gang's clients, Pol Lt Col Phum said.

Mrs Tueanjai was among the first five suspected gang members arrested in connection with the police exam scam discovered on June 10.

Dachai Uchukosolkarn, 42, a Lampang provincial administration organisation candidate, was later arrested as the sixth suspect and police were looking for two more suspects who were Mr Dachai's aides.

The two were identified as Wibulsak Saenjak, 29, and a man known only as To.

All of the six suspects arrested have been released on bail.

Pol Maj Gen Jakthip Holasutsakul, deputy Provincial Police Region 3 commissioner, said the inspection of more than 4,000 out of a total of 36,000 exam papers used in the June 10 test showed about 140 papers were suspected to have been filled out by cheats.

There were eight versions of the questionnaires used in the exam. All of them contained the same questions but were arranged in different orders.

Meanwhile, three suspects yesterday turned themselves in to police and another suspect was detained for questioning in connection with the June 10 exam scam.

Flight Sergeant First Class Samart Yodchuea, 37, Julalak Sriprommas, 25, and Nipaporn Jaiboon, 24, confessed to having found customers for the gang but insisted they did not get anything in return, aside from possible help from the gang.

Chatchawal Sonchaiyaphum, a Chaiyaphum resident, was arrested and charged for fraud and unauthorised possession of telecommunication devices.

BANGKOK POST