A lawyer representing Thailand's most notorious godfather, Somchai Kunplome, also known as Kamnan Poh,yesterday asked the Supreme Court to postpone the reading of a verdict in a corruption case against him.

Somchai's poor health was cited as a reason for postponing the verdict, a source said.

The Supreme Court was scheduled to give its verdict on the case today. If it upholds the two lower courts' rulings, Somchai will face five years and four months in jail.

The courts found Somchai guilty of masterminding corrupt land deals worth Bt93 million in total.

In 1992, Pira, or "Chaleaw", Sinrat bought 150 rai of land in Chon Buri's Bang Lamung district from KITI Corporation for Bt50,000 a rai.

In the purchase contract, the parties acknowledged the land was located on a forest reserve. It was later discovered that Pira was a gardener on Somchai's estate.

In early 1993, Pira sold 140 rai of the land to Pattaya City, a special administrative body, for Bt668,000 per rai (or Bt93 million in total) to use as a landfill.

City officials were found to have been involved in the scam, agreeing to pay an inflated price for land that they knew was part of a forest reserve.

Officials from Chon Buri's land office and the Lands Department sent letters to the municipal office warning of irregularities in the sale, but the Bt93-million purchase went ahead.

This is not the only case against Somchai at the Supreme Court.

He is also accused of hiring hit men to murder Prayoon Sitichote, a rival businessman involved in construction.

Negotiations for the contract to kill Prayoon took place between October 2002 and March 2003. The hit men tried unsuccessfully to kill Prayoon several times. An unknown gunman, who remains

at large, gunned down Prayoon during a wedding ceremony in 2003.

In 2004, Somchai was sentenced to 25 years in prison for hiring the hit men to kill Prayoon.

A year later, the Appeals Court upheld the lower court's decision.

The Supreme Court has yet to set a date for its ruling on the case.

Somchai is free on Bt20 million bail.

If the Supreme Court upholds the lower courts' guilty verdicts in both cases, the godfather from Chon Buri faces a total of 30 years and four months in prison.