Section 188: Destroying a will or another's document
Statutory text (Thai original)
ผู้ใดทำให้เสียหาย ทำลาย ซ่อนเร้น เอาไปเสีย หรือทำให้สูญหายหรือไร้ประโยชน์ ซึ่งพินัยกรรมหรือเอกสารใดของผู้อื่น ในประการที่น่าจะเกิดความเสียหายแก่ผู้อื่นหรือประชาชน ต้องระวางโทษจำคุกไม่เกินห้าปี และปรับไม่เกินหนึ่งแสนบาท หมายเหตุ: [อัตราโทษ แก้ไขเพิ่มเติมโดยมาตรา ๔ แห่งพระราชบัญญัติแก้ไขเพิ่มเติมประมวลกฎหมายอาญา (ฉบับที่ ๒๖) พ.ศ. ๒๕๖๐]
English translation
Whoever damages, destroys, conceals, takes away, or renders lost or useless a will or any document of another person, in a manner likely to cause injury to another person or to the public, shall be liable to imprisonment not exceeding five years and a fine not exceeding one 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 188 protects wills and other documents of another person against destruction, concealment, or removal. Its elements are an act of damaging, destroying, concealing, taking away, or rendering lost or useless a will or any document of another, and the requirement that the act be done in a manner likely to cause injury to another person or the public. That likelihood-of-injury element narrows the offence: a mere failure to hand over a document, or a refusal to deliver property, without conduct that suppresses or destroys the document itself, is treated as a civil matter rather than this crime. It sits within the offences protecting the administration of justice and documentary integrity, and is frequently charged together with forgery offences where a genuine document is suppressed and a false one substituted.
Why this matters in practice
This section is often raised in inheritance and property disputes where a will or key document goes missing, but the courts draw a firm line: merely refusing to return a document, or declining to transfer property to a beneficiary, is a civil grievance, not a Section 188 offence, unless the document itself is suppressed or destroyed in a way likely to cause injury. That likelihood-of-injury element and the act of suppression are what turn a private dispute into a crime carrying up to 5 years. Where a genuine document is hidden and a forged one used, forgery charges may stack on top. If a will or important document has disappeared in a dispute, take advice on whether the facts support a Section 188 case or a civil claim; you can consult a Thai lawyer.
Supreme Court decisions interpreting this section
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 842/2568 (2025)
Merely refusing to hand over land to a will beneficiary, causing difficulty in administering the estate, is a civil matter to be pursued by legal action, not an offence under Section 188.
The Court held that the defendant's refusal to deliver land to the beneficiary, whatever the reason and even though it obstructed administration of the estate, was a matter for a civil claim and did not constitute the offence of destroying or concealing a document under Section 188.
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 2148/2567 (2024)
Refusing to return an original document, such as a house registration book, is a civil violation of the owner's rights and is not treated as concealing or taking away another person's document under Section 188.
The defendant refused to return the original house registration document to the injured party. The Court of Appeal reversed the conviction, and the analysis treated the refusal as a civil matter rather than concealing or taking away another's document under Section 188.
Curated decisions with case numbers verified against the Supreme Court database. English renderings are the firm's editorial translation for study.
Cited in 120 Supreme Court decisions (1963 to 2026)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 842/2568 (2025)
- Decision 2148/2567 (2024)
- Decision 1472/2565 (2022)
- Decision 3457/2564 (2021)
- Decision 2836/2564 (2021)
- Decision 1473/2563 (2020)
- Decision 820/2558 (2015)
- Decision 1564/2557 (2014)
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 91 71
- Section 90 50
- Section 78 48
- Section 268 45
- Section 83 44
- Section 264 42
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
Is refusing to hand over a document an offence under Section 188?
Courts have held that merely refusing to return a document or property is a civil matter, not Section 188, unless the document itself is concealed or destroyed in a way likely to cause injury.
Does Section 188 apply to hiding a will?
Yes, where a will is destroyed, concealed, or taken away in a manner likely to cause injury to another person or the public. Simply not delivering it, without suppression, may be only a civil claim.
Related guides on ThaiLawOnline
Cite this section
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Plain citation
Penal Code, s. 188 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Penal Code (Thailand), s. 188. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-188/ (accessed 21 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.อ. มาตรา 188 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-188/ -
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<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-188/"><p>Whoever damages, destroys, conceals, takes away, or renders lost or useless a will or any document of another person, in a manner likely to cause injury to another person or to the public, shall be liable to imprisonment not exceeding five years and a fine…</p><footer>Penal Code, s. 188 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-188/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.