PHUKET: Officers from the Department of Special Investigation raided Phuket's Land Titles Office last week and took away documents relating to resort properties bordering Sirinath National Park, Phuketwan was told today.
Land Titles officials had previously refused to hand over the documents.
The DSI investigation has formally begun into one property, now the location for the Pullman Phuket Arcadia Naithon Beach resort, a senior investigator who prefers to remain anonymous said from Bangkok.
''In relation to the Pullman, our examination of the titles indicates some titles are correct while others are not correct,'' he said.
The DSI official said that in the case of the Trisara, another well-known five-star Phuket resort on the edge of Sirinath National Park, there was a ''90 percent chance'' of an investigation proceeding.
Examination so far revealed Sor Por Kor titles - meant only to allow agricultural use of public land - had been transferred inappropriately to other land and expanded in scale as well, the DSI officer said.
The owners of both resorts have denied any wrongdoing.
Officials investigating a number of properties on the edge of the Phuket park have been at pains to make the point that the present owners are in all likelihood innocent of any wrongdoing because of the number of times the titles to the properties have been transferred.
Their task is to trace the history of the properties to determine if at any point property sellers and officials colluded to misappropriate public land.
The Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation is planning to open a land legality verification center on Thursday so that investors can be certain that the property they are purchasing is not encroaching on national park land or Phuket's beaches, department chief Samak Donnapee announced today.
Land Titles officials had previously refused to hand over the documents.
The DSI investigation has formally begun into one property, now the location for the Pullman Phuket Arcadia Naithon Beach resort, a senior investigator who prefers to remain anonymous said from Bangkok.
''In relation to the Pullman, our examination of the titles indicates some titles are correct while others are not correct,'' he said.
The DSI official said that in the case of the Trisara, another well-known five-star Phuket resort on the edge of Sirinath National Park, there was a ''90 percent chance'' of an investigation proceeding.
Examination so far revealed Sor Por Kor titles - meant only to allow agricultural use of public land - had been transferred inappropriately to other land and expanded in scale as well, the DSI officer said.
The owners of both resorts have denied any wrongdoing.
Officials investigating a number of properties on the edge of the Phuket park have been at pains to make the point that the present owners are in all likelihood innocent of any wrongdoing because of the number of times the titles to the properties have been transferred.
Their task is to trace the history of the properties to determine if at any point property sellers and officials colluded to misappropriate public land.
The Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation is planning to open a land legality verification center on Thursday so that investors can be certain that the property they are purchasing is not encroaching on national park land or Phuket's beaches, department chief Samak Donnapee announced today.
