Section 344: Fraud on labour

Supreme Court decisions interpreting this section

1. Supreme Court Judgment No. 421/2556 (2013)

   The offence under Section 344 is complete once ten or more persons are deceived into working, even if the work is unfinished and the offender has not yet obtained any benefit.

   Eleven victims were deceived into working on a film with a promise of wages that would not be paid, and did part of the work. The court held the elements of Section 344 were complete even though the film was unfinished and the defendant had gained nothing.

2. Supreme Court Judgment No. 4279/2539 (1996)

   Section 344 requires the offender to intend the result the section names: that the deceived persons work for him or for a third person without payment of wages, or for less than agreed. Where the scheme was designed only to collect money from applicants and not to obtain their labour without pay, that intent is missing and the offence is not made out.

   The company advertised for job applicants, falsely stating there was work when there was none, and collected work-security deposits from them. The Supreme Court held the first and second defendants, as its managing directors, guilty of public fraud under Sections 341 and 343 paragraph one, and of offences under the Emergency Decree on Borrowing Money Amounting to Public Fraud B.E. 2527, since the applicants had to buy thirty shares for 3,000 baht and were paid 135 baht a month, a return of about fifty-four per cent a year. But the scheme was aimed at getting money from the applicants, not at obtaining their labour without pay, so the intent Section 344 requires was absent and there was no offence under that section.

Curated decisions with case numbers verified against the Supreme Court database. English renderings are the firm's editorial translation for study.