Parents allowed to bail their street racing children

Following the Sunday roundup of street racers that saw some 100 youths sent to the Ban Metta (for males) and the Ban Pranee (females) remand homes the next day, Thawatchai said the youths would undergo the fiveday program before their parents could bail them out today.

Before the bail applications were submitted, parents would be asked to join some activities with their children so the youths would know how their families had suffered from their lawbreaking action, so they would not do it again, he said.

The parents would also be asked if they had any knowledge of their children's street racing after 10pm and will be asked to ground them after 10pm, he said. If the parents could not do so, they must pay the bail deposit within two years, and if they could not control their children from repeating the offence, the DJPO would revoke their guardianship over the children, and assign Child Protection officials to do the job instead. 

The remand homes will make a suggestion attached to the case report for the public prosecutor and the court that street racing was punishable by up to three years in detention, so the youths should be given a chance and not be prosecuted by the court, he said.

However, after getting bail, and they then repeated the offence and were sent back to the remand homes, they would forfeit any chance of further bail, he added.

Among the 100 youths, seven were repeat offenders of other crimes  four drugrelated cases, one theft, one property intrusion and one gambling case, he said.

Officials will determine further if this group would get bail or not.