Koh Pha Ngan bus driver steals Romanian tourist’s credit card

Thai thief withdraws cash easily with password written on card

Petch Petpailin3 weeks agoLast Updated: Thursday, May 22, 2025

584 1 minute read

Koh Pha Ngan bus driver steals Romanian tourist’s credit card — Photo via Naewna

Police yesterday, May 21, arrested a Thai coach bus driver for stealing a credit card from a Romanian tourist and using the card to fraudulently withdraw 280,000 baht.

The Romanian victim, Cristina, sought assistance from the Surat Thani Provincial Immigration Bureau after discovering that her credit card had gone missing.

The foreign woman suspected that she lost her card during a coach journey from Koh Pha Ngan in Surat Thani to Phuket. Upon checking her account, she found that 280,000 baht was withdrawn, prompting serious concern.

Officers investigated the transactions and found that the money was withdrawn from various ATMs in the Mueang Surat Thani district.

Police examined CCTV footage from one ATM and identified the suspect, 34 year old Charnnarong, who worked as a bus driver. Footage showed Charnnarong using his personal vehicle, a white Toyota sedan, to drive around Surat Thani city centre and withdraw money from multiple ATMs.

Koh Pha Ngan bus driver steals Romanian tourist's credit card | News by Thaiger — The suspect and his girlfriend. | Photo via Naewna

Police later raided Charnnarong’s residence on Talat Mai Road in Surat Thani, where they arrested him. At the time of arrest, he had not yet spent the stolen money.

Officers recovered the full amount of 280,000 baht in cash at the property.

Thai man steals credit card from Romanian woman — The white sedan that the suspect used in the crime. | Photo via Matichon

Charnnarong claimed he found the credit card dropped on the coach bus and picked it up. He stated that the card’s password was written on it, enabling him to withdraw money.

After confirming that the password worked, he continued to withdraw cash a total of 14 times.

Thai coach bus driver arrested for credit card theft — Photo via Naewna

Charnnarong faces three charges including:

Section 334 of the Criminal Law: Theft. The penalty is up to three years’ imprisonment or a fine of up to 60,000 baht.
Section 188 of the Criminal Law: Damaging, destroying, concealing, or rendering useless a document belonging to another person. The penalty is up to five years’ imprisonment and a fine of up to 10,000 baht.
Section 269(5) of the Criminal Law: Unlawfully possessing another person’s electronic card. The penalty is up to five years’ imprisonment, a fine of up to 100,000 baht, or both.

Petch Petpailin

Petpailin, or Petch, is a Thai translator and writer for The Thaiger who focuses on translating breakingThai news stories into English. With a background in field journalism, Petch brings several years of experience to the English News desk at The Thaiger. Before joining The Thaiger, Petch worked as a content writer for several known blogging sites in Bangkok, including Happio and The Smart Local. Her articles have been syndicated by many big publishers in Thailand and internationally, including the Daily Mail, The Sun and the Bangkok Post. She is a news writer who stops reading news on the weekends to spend more time cafe hopping and petting dwarf shrimp! But during office hours, you can find Petch on LinkedIn and you can reach her by email at petch@thethaiger.com.