President of Diamond Hill, Sitthikorn Boonchim, was yesterday sentenced to five years in jail and his firm was fined Bt12,000 for public fraud as well as engraving without permission an image of the Royal Crown on the Phra Somdej Nue Hua amulets.
After 50 buyers of the amulets filed police complaints, Sitthikorn and his firm were found to have wrongfully advertised that the production and distribution of the amulets was backed by the palace since late 2007. The court has also ordered the defendants to refund all 921 people who bought the amulets at a total of no more than Bt4.055 million.
