Section 268: Using a forged or falsified document
Statutory text (Thai original)
ผู้ใดใช้หรืออ้างเอกสารอันเกิดจากการกระทำความผิดตามมาตรา ๒๖๔ มาตรา ๒๖๕ มาตรา ๒๖๖ หรือมาตรา ๒๖๗ ในประการที่น่าจะเกิดความเสียหายแก่ผู้อื่นหรือประชาชน ต้องระวางโทษดังที่บัญญัติไว้ในมาตรานั้น ๆ ถ้าผู้กระทำความผิดตามวรรคแรกเป็นผู้ปลอมเอกสารนั้น หรือเป็นผู้แจ้งให้เจ้าพนักงานจดข้อความนั้นเองให้ลงโทษตามมาตรานี้แต่กระทงเดียว
English translation
Whoever uses or refers to a document arising from the commission of an offence under Section 264, Section 265, Section 266, or Section 267, in a manner likely to cause damage to another person or to the public, shall be liable to the penalty prescribed in that Section.
If the offender under paragraph one is the person who forged that document, or is the person who gave the information causing the official to record that statement, that offender shall be punished under this Section as a single offence only.
ThaiLawOnline translation, written from the Thai original and verified
Firm annotation
Section 268 criminalises the use of a document forged or falsified under Sections 264, 265, 266, or 267. Its elements are: (1) using or referring to such a document; and (2) a manner likely to cause damage to another or the public. It does not carry its own penalty scale; instead it borrows the penalty of whichever underlying section produced the document, so use of a Section 266 document carries the one-to-ten-year range. A settled point in practice is that where the same person both forges and uses the document, the two are treated as a single act and punished once under Section 268 read with the underlying section, rather than cumulatively.
Why this matters in practice
Because Section 268 takes its penalty from the underlying section, the real exposure depends on the document type: use of an ordinary forged document tracks Section 264 (up to three years), while use of a will or bill of exchange tracks Section 266 (up to ten years). When the forger and the user are the same person, expect a single combined punishment, not double counting; where they are different people, the user is liable in his own right. The offence is often prosecuted alongside fraud under Section 341, and the defence commonly disputes knowledge that the document was forged. Restitution and a guilty plea remain central to obtaining a suspended sentence. See fraud and scam laws in Thailand.
Supreme Court decisions interpreting this section
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 3399/2568 (2025)
Use of a forged document under Section 268 together with forgery under Section 264 and fraud under Section 341, arising from one act of equal penalty, is punished as a single joint-fraud count.
The defendant was prosecuted under Sections 264, 268, and 341. The trial court held the conduct to be a single act violating several provisions of equal penalty and punished it as joint fraud with three years imprisonment, with restitution of 1,100,000 baht ordered.
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 1164/2568 (2025)
Use of a forged document under Section 268 read with Section 264 supports conviction alongside a connected property offence, with restitution limited to the injured party's proportionate ownership share.
The defendant pleaded guilty and was convicted under Section 264 paragraph one and Section 268 together with a property offence. Restitution was set at half the vehicle's value, 650,000 baht, reflecting the injured party's co-ownership.
Curated decisions with case numbers verified against the Supreme Court database. English renderings are the firm's editorial translation for study.
Cited in 842 Supreme Court decisions (1961 to 2026)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 914/2569 (2026)
- Decision 7212/2567 (2024)
- Decision 2086/2567 (2024)
- Decision 2229/2566 (2023)
- Decision 1695/2566 (2023)
- Decision 5501/2564 (2021)
- Decision 4375/2564 (2021)
- Decision 4373/2564 (2021)
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 264 676
- Section 265 603
- Section 91 579
- Section 83 437
- Section 90 321
- Section 78 299
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
What penalty applies to using a forged document?
Section 268 carries the same penalty as the section under which the document was forged. Using an ordinary forged document tracks Section 264 (up to three years), while using a forged will or bill of exchange tracks Section 266 (up to ten years).
If I both forged and used the document, is that two crimes?
When the same person forges and then uses the document, Thai courts treat it as a single act and impose one punishment under Section 268 read with the underlying section, rather than punishing forgery and use separately.
Related guides on ThaiLawOnline
Cite this section
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Plain citation
Penal Code, s. 268 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Penal Code (Thailand), s. 268. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-268/ (accessed 20 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.อ. มาตรา 268 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-268/ -
Embed on your site
<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-268/"><p>Whoever uses or refers to a document arising from the commission of an offence under Section 264, Section 265, Section 266, or Section 267, in a manner likely to cause damage to another person or to the public, shall be liable to the penalty prescribed…</p><footer>Penal Code, s. 268 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-268/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.