Section 269/7: Increased penalty for payment and cash withdrawal cards
Statutory text (Thai original)
ถ้าการกระทำดังกล่าวในหมวดนี้ เป็นการกระทำเกี่ยวกับบัตรอิเล็กทรอนิกส์ที่ผู้ออกได้ออกให้แก่ผู้มีสิทธิใช้ เพื่อใช้ประโยชน์ในการชำระค่าสินค้า ค่าบริการหรือหนี้อื่นแทนการชำระด้วยเงินสด หรือใช้เบิกถอนเงินสด ผู้กระทำต้องระวางโทษหนักกว่าที่บัญญัติไว้ในมาตรานั้น ๆ กึ่งหนึ่ง
English translation
If an act referred to in this Chapter is done in relation to an electronic card that the issuer has issued to a person entitled to use it, for use in paying for goods, for services, or for other debts in place of payment in cash, or for withdrawing cash, the offender shall be liable to a penalty one half heavier than that prescribed in the Section concerned.
ThaiLawOnline translation, written from the Thai original and verified
Firm annotation
Section 269/7 is a penalty enhancement provision, not an offence. It applies to any act referred to in the Chapter, so it reaches Sections 269/1 to 269/6 without exception, and it operates automatically once the factual condition is met. The condition is functional rather than formal: the card must have been issued by an issuer to a person entitled to use it, for payment in place of cash or for cash withdrawal. A store loyalty card or a building access card issued as an electronic card under Section 1(14) does not attract the uplift; a credit, debit, or ATM card does. The uplift is by one half of the penalty prescribed in the Section concerned, applied to both limits, so Section 269/1's range of one to five years becomes one year and six months to seven years and six months, and Section 269/3's three to ten years becomes four years and six months to fifteen years. Because most card offences prosecuted in Thailand involve payment cards, this Section is better understood as the ordinary rule for the Chapter than as an exception.
Why this matters in practice
Anyone reading the penalties in Sections 269/1 to 269/6 in isolation will understate the real exposure, because in almost every prosecuted case this Section applies. Check the charge sheet: the uplift must be pleaded and the payment or withdrawal function of the card proved, and it is not automatic on the evidence merely because the item is called a card. Where the uplift takes a minimum term above the threshold at which suspension of sentence becomes unavailable, it changes the outcome of the case rather than just the headline number, which is why the point is worth contesting where the card's function is genuinely in doubt.
Supreme Court decisions interpreting this section
-
Supreme Court Judgment No. 7946/2568 (2025)
Each unlawful use of a card to pay for goods and services, at a different time and for a different amount, is not a single continuous act but a separate offence, so seven uses constitute seven distinct counts.
The defendant used a card to pay for goods and services seven times in differing amounts at differing times. Charged under Sections 335, 265, 268, 269/5, 269/6, and 269/7, the conduct was held to be seven distinct offences rather than one act.
-
Supreme Court Judgment No. 2555/2566 (2023)
Unlawful use of another's electronic card to withdraw funds, committed by an employee against an employer, supports conviction under Section 269/7 together with theft by an employee under Section 335(11), and a first offender who repays may receive a suspended prison term with a fine.
Charged under Sections 188, 269/5, 269/7, 334, and 335, the defendant confessed and was convicted under Sections 188, 269/5, 269/7, and 335(11) paragraph one for using an electronic card to withdraw funds and employer theft. The Supreme Court suspended the prison term and added a 20,000 baht fine, the minimum for the theft count.
Curated decisions with case numbers verified against the Supreme Court database. English renderings are the firm's editorial translation for study.
Cited in 27 Supreme Court decisions (2004 to 2026)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 664/2569 (2026)
- Decision 52/2553 (2010)
- Decision 6820/2552 (2009)
- Decision 3499/2552 (2009)
- Decision 5345/2550 (2007)
- Decision 1151-1153/2564 (2021)
- Decision 1114/2563 (2020)
- Decision 2490/2558 (2015)
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 26
- Section 78 25
- Section 269/5 21
- Section 90 19
- Section 335 13
- Section 334 13
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 using someone else's ATM or credit card a crime?
Yes. Section 269/7 punishes unlawfully using another person's electronic card, such as a lost or stolen card, in a manner likely to cause damage, with imprisonment of one to five years, a fine, or both.
If I used a stolen card several times, is that one offence or many?
Courts have held that each separate use of another's card, at a different time and for a different amount, is a distinct offence, so several uses can be punished as several counts.
Related guides on ThaiLawOnline
Cite this section
-
Plain citation
Penal Code, s. 269/7 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Penal Code (Thailand), s. 269/7. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-269-7/ (accessed 20 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.อ. มาตรา 269/7 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-269-7/ -
Embed on your site
<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-269-7/"><p>If an act referred to in this Chapter is done in relation to an electronic card that the issuer has issued to a person entitled to use it, for use in paying for goods, for services, or for other debts in place of payment in…</p><footer>Penal Code, s. 269/7 (Thailand) — <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-penal-code/section-269-7/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.