Korean woman says B4,000 in Thai banknotes missing from bag after her arrival at Suvarnabhumi

Police interrogate baggage handler Phairin Pholkhan (red T-shirt), who is accused of stealing cash from the luggage of a Korean woman at Suvarnabhumi airport. (Photo by Sutthiwit Chayutworakan)

SAMUT PRAKAN: A baggage handler has been arrested on charges of stealing 4,000 baht in cash from a South Korean woman’s luggage at Suvarnabhumi airport.

Phairin Pholkhan, 30, was apprehended on Friday. Police and airport officials seized four 1,000-baht banknotes from his locker at the airport.

The arrest came after Lee Soyeong, a South Korean passenger, filed a complaint with tourist police at Suvarnabhumi around noon on Friday. She told police she had flown on a Jeju Air flight from Inchoen to Thailand and arrived at Suvarnabhumi at 10.10am.

Before boarding the flight, she had placed Thai banknotes totalling 20,000 baht inside her luggage. She took photos of them and the purse she had put in her checked baggage.

After she claimed the baggage at the airport, she found the money was missing.

Tourist police officers then took her to file a complaint with Pol Col Sitthipong Panthaisong, deputy investigation chief at Suvarnabhumi aiport.

Police and airport officials examined closed-circuit television cameras, which led to the arrest of Mr Phairin.

The numbers of the four banknotes found in his locker matched those on the photos taken by the tourist.

Police said the baggage handler confessed and was being held in police custody at the Suvarnabhumi airport station pending further legal action.