A THAI MAN filed a lawsuit against his wife, accusing her of hiding her lottery winnings worth 12 million baht, even though his wife had remarried after claiming to have broken up years back.
The Thaiger reported that the husband, Narin, 47, obtained legal counsel on March 11 to file the lawsuit against his wife, Chaweewan, 43, of over 20 years. The couple has three daughters together.
Narin said that his family was racked with debt of over 2 million baht; hence they decided to move abroad to South Korea in 2014 for work to pay off the debt.
While working in South Korea, he transferred around 27,000 to 30,000 baht every month after Chaweewan returned to Thailand to look after their children.
His daughters then revealed to Narin that Chaweewan struck the jackpot of 12 million baht in the lottery and hid it from him. Narin then contacted his wife but to no avail, he was ignored.
Therefore, he decided to go back to Thailand on March 3 this year to confront his wife, only to discover that she had been remarried to a police officer on Feb 25.
“I was shocked and did not know what to do. I am disappointed. I did not expect that my wife of 20 years would do this to me.
I only had 60,000 baht left in my bank account because I gave money to her every month. I want to call out for justice and the money that I deserve,” a scorned Narin said.
Narin then shared that their marriage is not officially certified but his lawyer, Narong Kaewphet, asserted that he has the right to claim the money despite not having the official marriage certificate.
It is sufficient that relatives and other people know about their relationship to make it official.
Chaweewan had lodged a complaint against Narin for defamation and insisted that she did not hide her lottery winnings from him. She claimed that they did break up several years ago through a phone call and that the neighbours were aware of it.
She added that Narin never sent her family that much money, only 3,000 or 4,000 baht to their children’s bank accounts.
Meanwhile, Narong clarified that despite being without the official marriage certificate, Narin still has a right to the winnings should their marriage be acknowledged by their families and friends. Assets earned during the marriage must be shared after a breakup or divorce.
