Section 269/3: Import or export of forged electronic cards or forging tools
Statutory text (Thai original)
ผู้ใดนำเข้าในหรือส่งออกไปนอกราชอาณาจักรซึ่งสิ่งใด ๆ ตามมาตรา ๒๖๙/๑ หรือมาตรา ๒๖๙/๒ ต้องระวางโทษจำคุกตั้งแต่สามปีถึงสิบปี และปรับตั้งแต่หกหมื่นบาทถึงสองแสนบาท
English translation
Whoever imports into or exports out of the Kingdom anything under Section 269/1 or Section 269/2 shall be liable to imprisonment from three years to ten years and a fine from sixty thousand baht to two hundred thousand baht.
ThaiLawOnline translation, written from the Thai original and verified
Firm annotation
Section 269/3 targets the cross border movement of both the forged cards themselves and the equipment used to make them, by reference to anything under Section 269/1 or Section 269/2. Unlike the corresponding provisions in the passport group, it does not borrow another Section's penalty; it sets its own, and that penalty is the heaviest basic scale in the Chapter, three to ten years with a mandatory fine of 60,000 to 200,000 baht. The severity reflects the legislative judgment that organised card fraud is transnational and that the border is the effective point of control. The conduct is complete on import or export; there is no requirement of intent to use or sell, which distinguishes it from Section 269/4. Where the card concerned is a payment or cash withdrawal card, Section 269/7 raises this penalty by one half, producing a range of four years and six months to fifteen years.
Why this matters in practice
The three year minimum makes a suspended sentence unlikely, and this is the provision that turns a courier role into serious exposure. Foreign nationals arriving in Thailand with blank card stock, encoders, or cloned cards in their baggage are charged under this Section rather than the lighter possession provisions, and bail is harder to obtain because of the minimum term. Note that the offence does not require any intention to use the cards in Thailand, so transit and onward shipment are caught. Customs seizures normally generate parallel charges under the Customs Act.
Supreme Court decisions interpreting this section
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Supreme Court Judgment No. 3499/2552 (2009)
Making and using forged payment cards under Section 269/3 read with Sections 269/1 and 269/4 constitutes several distinct offences, punished count by count where multiple forged cards and transaction records are involved.
Police arrested the defendants with 39 forged Visa credit cards and 7 transaction slips. They were charged under Sections 269/1, 269/3, 269/4, 269/7, and 334, and convicted under Section 269/3 and 269/4 read with Sections 269/1 and 83, with the acts treated as several distinct offences punished cumulatively.
Curated decisions with case numbers verified against the Supreme Court database. English renderings are the firm's editorial translation for study.
Cited in 1 Supreme Court decisions (2009 to 2009)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 3499/2552 (2009)
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.
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 is Section 269/3 different from Sections 269/1 and 269/2?
Section 269/1 punishes forging an electronic card and Section 269/2 punishes making or possessing a tool for forging one, each carrying one to five years and a fine of 20,000 to 100,000 baht. Section 269/3 punishes bringing anything covered by those two sections into the Kingdom, or sending it out, and carries three to ten years and a fine of 60,000 to 200,000 baht.
Does Section 269/3 require an intention to use or sell the card?
No. The offence is complete on bringing the card or the tool into the Kingdom, or on sending it out. Using, possessing for use, selling and possessing for sale belong to Section 269/4.
What is the penalty under Section 269/3?
Imprisonment from three to ten years together with a fine from 60,000 to 200,000 baht. Where the card is one issued by the issuer to a person entitled to use it for payment or for withdrawing cash, Section 269/7 makes the punishment one half heavier.
Related guides on ThaiLawOnline
Cite this section
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Plain citation
Penal Code, s. 269/3 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Penal Code (Thailand), s. 269/3. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-269-3/ (accessed 20 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.อ. มาตรา 269/3 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-269-3/ -
Embed on your site
<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-269-3/"><p>Whoever imports into or exports out of the Kingdom anything under Section 269/1 or Section 269/2 shall be liable to imprisonment from three years to ten years and a fine from sixty thousand baht to two hundred thousand baht.</p><footer>Penal Code, s. 269/3 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-269-3/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.