3 years in jail for shady deals

In its ruling, the court said Pramote Raksarat, 64, committed the offences in 1996 while head of the Agricultural Extension Department's horticultural-crop promotion division.

At the time, Pramote proposed the construction of a plant-tissue nursery in Trang province. The project which was approved by the department, and Pramote was appointed as chairman of several panels related to bidding and procurement.

The project was valued at Bt49.2 million.

Pramote was later found to have conducted business with two of the bidders. In addition, the successful bidder was said to have used a woman's bank account to transfer more than Bt20 million into Pramote's bank account.

In 2002, the National Counter Corruption Commission pronounced Pramote guilty, but in 2004 a lower court acquitted him. The public prosecutors appealed again.

After reviewing the evidence, the Appeals Court overruled the lower court's decision and sentenced Pramote to three years in prison.

Pramote has been released on Bt1-million bail and plans to appeal the verdict.