There is a saying “The trust of the innocent is the liar's most useful tool”, trust is the most important thing that we can give to someone, and oftentimes, our trust will be broken. This can be caused by many things, but in this article, we will discuss what if you trusted someone to take care of your property or co-own a property with you and that person broke your trust by causing problems in relation to such property.
Many times, trustworthiness would bring damage to a person especially if such a person deposits a property to another person even though it has an official agreement, it is possible that our contractual party will dishonestly act something with our property deposited. Therefore, the criminal law would protect the right of such a person by enacting the offence of misappropriation and its punishment.
In Thailand, the act of dishonestly managing or damaging property is considered a Criminal Offence under the Thai Criminal Law, Section 352 states: “Whoever, being in possession of a property belonging to the other person, or of which the other person is a co-owner, dishonestly convert such property to himself or a third person, is said to commit misappropriation, and shall be punished with imprisonment not exceeding three years or fined not exceeding six thousand Baht, or both. If such property comes under the possession of the offender on account of being delivered to him by the other person by mistake by any means whatever, or being a lost property found by him, the offender shall be liable to one-half of the punishment.”
In order to protect the victims of such offence, the above Section from the Thai Criminal Law enacts the offence of misappropriation or embezzlement which means a criminal offence relating to when someone possesses a property owned by another person or such person is a co-owner and he/she dishonestly converts such property to their own or a third person. Simply put, when you co-own property and you try to become the sole owner of the property or sell it to another person, then you will be subjected to a criminal offence under the Thai Criminal Code, Section 352.
Many people get confused between the offence of theft and misappropriation because it has a similar legal method or the process to which the offence was committed is almost similar in principle. However, the significant key to classifying which act will commit the offence of misappropriation is to consider possession of a property. A person has the right to possess whether by the duty under an agreement or by the belief of an injured party to deposit such property before he/she embezzles it dishonestly. Additionally, embezzlement is a private offence. Provided that, parties can negotiate, settle and withdraw the case from the Court.
With reference to the chapter of the offence of misappropriation under the Thai Criminal Code, it further designates that when someone has found a valuable movable property which is hidden or buried and there is no one claiming to be the owner. If such a person converts such property for oneself or to another person, he or she will be punished under the Criminal Law as well. Furthermore, this kind of case will be deemed as the Civil Case conformed to the Criminal offence. In the light of this issue, an injured person shall request a public prosecutor to let the offender return the property embezzled or provide the price in lieu of returning the property.
There is no crime in the world that will be acceptable in the eyes of the law, let alone a crime where a person betrayed another. Such a crime will never be acceptable and shall be dealt with accordingly. Our legal team is passionate about helping clients facing problems regarding such matters.
We specialize in serving our clients the litigation services. Many documents related to the offence of misappropriation case shall be contemplated. If a case arises, the attorney representing the plaintiff shall submit the motion requesting the offender to provide compensation because compensation or the default interests cannot be proposed by a public prosecutor.
