Section 151: Dishonest use of office over property
Statutory text (Thai original)
ผู้ใดเป็นเจ้าพนักงาน มีหน้าที่ซื้อ ทำ จัดการหรือรักษาทรัพย์ใด ๆ ใช้อำนาจในตำแหน่งโดยทุจริต อันเป็นการเสียหายแก่รัฐ เทศบาล สุขาภิบาลหรือเจ้าของทรัพย์นั้น ต้องระวางโทษจำคุกตั้งแต่ห้าปีถึงยี่สิบปี หรือจำคุกตลอดชีวิต และปรับตั้งแต่หนึ่งแสนบาทถึงสี่แสนบาท หมายเหตุ: [อัตราโทษ แก้ไขเพิ่มเติมโดยมาตรา ๗ แห่งพระราชบัญญัติแก้ไขเพิ่มเติมประมวลกฎหมายอาญา (ฉบับที่ ๒๖) พ.ศ. ๒๕๖๐]
English translation
Whoever, being an official having the duty to buy, make, manage or maintain any property, dishonestly exercises the power of his office in a manner injurious to the State, a municipality, a sanitary district or the owner of such property, shall be punished with imprisonment from five to twenty years or imprisonment for life, and a fine from one hundred thousand to four hundred thousand baht.
This English translation is provided for reference only and has not yet been firm-verified. Always rely on the Thai original.
Firm annotation
Section 151 sits beside the peculation offence in Section 147 but targets a different wrong. Section 147 punishes misappropriating the property; Section 151 punishes the dishonest exercise of official power over property in a way that causes loss, even without the official taking the property for himself. Its elements are (1) being an official (2) with the duty to buy, make, manage or maintain property, (3) dishonestly exercising the power of the office, (4) causing injury to the State, a municipality, a sanitary district or the owner. The duty over the property is essential; a charge that fails to establish that direct duty does not make out the offence. The two sections are frequently charged together and, on the same facts, are treated as a single act punished under the heavier provision.
Why this matters in practice
This is a serious corruption offence, minimum five years up to life, non-compoundable and handled through the anti-corruption process. The central pleading point is duty: the indictment must show the accused had a direct duty to buy, make, manage or maintain the property, and a failure to establish that duty is a real line of defence. Because the offence carries a life-imprisonment ceiling, the applicable limitation period is the longest tier. Where the same conduct fits both this section and Section 147, expect a single-act analysis with sentencing under the heavier count.
Supreme Court decisions interpreting this section
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 52/2567 (2024)
An indictment that shows the official had a direct duty to manage budget funds belonging to a public body sufficiently pleads the duty element of Section 151.
The Supreme Court held the charge was intelligible in showing that the first defendant had a direct duty to manage budget funds of a sub-district administrative organization for a cultural project, which is an element of the offence under Section 151.
Curated decisions with case numbers verified against the Supreme Court database. English renderings are the firm's editorial translation for study.
Cited in 101 Supreme Court decisions (1959 to 2025)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 2140/2568 (2025)
- Decision 52/2567 (2024)
- Decision 2934/2566 (2023)
- Decision 2695/2566 (2023)
- Decision 2700/2565 (2022)
- Decision 4167/2564 (2021)
- Decision 3299/2564 (2021)
- Decision 2090/2563 (2020)
This list is selected automatically, weighted towards judgments that turn on this section rather than ones that merely recite it when passing sentence. It has not yet been reviewed by the firm.
Most often cited alongside
- Section 157 83
- Section 147 55
- Section 91 46
- Section 83 44
- Section 90 39
- Section 86 35
Sections that appear in the same judgments as this one most often. The figure is the number of decisions.
Counted across the firm's corpus of 83,652 Supreme Court decisions, 1921 to 2026. The count is complete; the stated year range trims rare outliers so it describes where the citations actually sit. These figures are computed by us and are not official court statistics. How we count these, and what we measured
Frequently asked questions
How does Section 151 differ from official embezzlement under Section 147?
Section 147 punishes misappropriating the property; Section 151 punishes dishonestly using official power over property to cause loss, even without taking it.
Is duty over the property required?
Yes. The prosecution must show the official had a direct duty to buy, make, manage or maintain the property; without it, the offence is not made out.
Related guides on ThaiLawOnline
Cite this section
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Plain citation
Penal Code, s. 151 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Penal Code (Thailand), s. 151. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-151/ (accessed 17 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.อ. มาตรา 151 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-151/ -
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<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-151/"><p>Whoever, being an official having the duty to buy, make, manage or maintain any property, dishonestly exercises the power of his office in a manner injurious to the State, a municipality, a sanitary district or the owner of such property, shall be punished with imprisonment…</p><footer>Penal Code, s. 151 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-151/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.