Police question Phlaiwan Chaichana and husband Sathit Mitmart in Ang Thong police station with the coins seized from them.

Earnings by children used to buy pickup truck and luxurious items

Ang Thong police yesterday arrested a mother and her husband for forcing their two daughters to beg for them.

One child has begged for seven years. The couple spent the money on a new pickup truck and luxury items.

Phlaiwan Chaichana and husband Sathit Mitmart have been charged with forcing minors to beg.

The girls, whose surnames are different from both suspects, are 15 and five years old.

They are now in government care.

Bt15,000 in coins

Police found the suspects waiting in their pickup near a market.

The girls had told them they would be there. Coins amounting to Bt15,000 were found hidden in the vehicle.

Sathit told police they had once sold balloons at local fairs but had found they could earn much more begging, so he had taken the elder girl out of school at seven years old and sent her out to beg.

He admits the couple have beaten the child. 

The elder girl told police she had been begging since about age eight. She wants to go back to school.

Police say the girls have begged regularly at local fairs in several Central provinces.

They had been in Ang Thong for two days before people reported them to the police.