PHUKET: Corruption investigations into Phuket parkland property deals will focus on Phuket's Land Titles Office from this week with the arrival of a team of detectives from Bangkok.
The Phuket Land Titles Office has so far rejected official approaches to allow ducuments to be examined. But the Department of Special Investigations team, which arrives on Phuket on Thursday, has the power to open those doors.
Flying in from Bangkok with the DSI detectives are members of the Anti-Money Laundering Squad.
Despite media reports, Phuket police have taken no action yet in cases involving suspected parkland encroachment among valuable properties that border Phuket's Sirinath National Park.
As investigators from the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation have said all along, the people who now hold the questionable chanote land titles may be innocent victims of property frauds that occurred years ago.
Investigators have insisted on having access to Land Titles Office documents so they can examine the provenance of existing titles and determine who conspired to encroach on Phuket parkland, and when.
Police are unlikely to act against the present owner-occupiers unless they can be directly linked to acts of parkland misappropriation.
Fourteen park border properties have been named as being under investigation while the ownership of another 366 plots are listed for future probes.
One of the existing 14 chanote holders has already been cleared, the Director of Sirinath National Park, Cheewapab Cheewatam, said today.
Suree Samlit Co. Ltd. was among the owners of some of Phuket's best-known resort brands in the original list of 14.
''The present owners of the property wrote to the Phuket Land Titles Office asking whether the title to the property was legal,'' Khun Cheewapab said.
''The Land Titles Office wrote back saying that the title to the property was legal. That exonerates the present owners.
''It means the investigation must now continue into the historic documents held at the Phuket Land Titles Office.''
Just seven of the 366 plots scheduled for Phase II of the investigation had been checked so far, Khun Cheewapab said.
The Phuket Land Titles Office has so far rejected official approaches to allow ducuments to be examined. But the Department of Special Investigations team, which arrives on Phuket on Thursday, has the power to open those doors.
Flying in from Bangkok with the DSI detectives are members of the Anti-Money Laundering Squad.
Despite media reports, Phuket police have taken no action yet in cases involving suspected parkland encroachment among valuable properties that border Phuket's Sirinath National Park.
As investigators from the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation have said all along, the people who now hold the questionable chanote land titles may be innocent victims of property frauds that occurred years ago.
Investigators have insisted on having access to Land Titles Office documents so they can examine the provenance of existing titles and determine who conspired to encroach on Phuket parkland, and when.
Police are unlikely to act against the present owner-occupiers unless they can be directly linked to acts of parkland misappropriation.
Fourteen park border properties have been named as being under investigation while the ownership of another 366 plots are listed for future probes.
One of the existing 14 chanote holders has already been cleared, the Director of Sirinath National Park, Cheewapab Cheewatam, said today.
Suree Samlit Co. Ltd. was among the owners of some of Phuket's best-known resort brands in the original list of 14.
''The present owners of the property wrote to the Phuket Land Titles Office asking whether the title to the property was legal,'' Khun Cheewapab said.
''The Land Titles Office wrote back saying that the title to the property was legal. That exonerates the present owners.
''It means the investigation must now continue into the historic documents held at the Phuket Land Titles Office.''
Just seven of the 366 plots scheduled for Phase II of the investigation had been checked so far, Khun Cheewapab said.
So now the investigation gets serious ... but will there be a meaningful end result. As I read it, if the present owners are exonerated, & the corruption is historic, then no action will be possible to reclaim stolen land. If that is correct, then it becomes a futile exercise.
Posted by Logic on April 2, 2013 20:53
Editor Comment:
No. Each case is different. That's the way the law works. If a present owner has a direct link to an illegitimate title, they will have a lot of explaining to do. You prefer guesswork, Logic?