Scammed actress wins B1 million in damages from bank

Court says KBank should have been alert to suspicious after-midnight transfers in Charlotte Austin case

The Civil Court has ordered Kasikornbank Plc to pay 1 million baht for failing to detect suspicious after-midnight transfers in the case of Thai-British actress Charlotte Austin, who lost 4 million baht to scammers in 2024.

The ruling was handed down on Wednesday in the suit filed against the bank by Miss Charlotte Co Ltd, which manages the Phuket-born actress’s assets and financial interests.

The fifth runner-up in Miss Grand Thailand 2022 was among the first Thai public figures to fall victim to scam gangs. Her case also encouraged other victims of similar scams to file police complaints.

Ms Charlotte, then 25, received a video call on Dec 7, 2024, from a man claiming to be an official from the Department of Special Investigation. He told her she was suspected of money laundering in a case involving scandal-hit Stark Corporation, which was in the headlines at the time.

The caller instructed her to transfer 4 million baht so that authorities could verify her innocence. Following the instructions, she made three transfers through the KBank mobile banking application, including two after midnight, while being forced to remain on a video call with the scammer.

The Criminal Court in May last year sentenced four defendants in the case to prison terms ranging from six to seven years.

The lawsuit, seeking 4 million baht in damages, alleged that the bank had breached its obligations under a deposit agreement.

The plaintiff argued that the transactions were clearly unusual and high-risk, but the bank failed to detect them or issue any warnings, resulting in financial losses.

Kasikornbank argued that its transaction monitoring and fraud prevention systems met industry standards and that the transfers were processed as ordinary transactions under its normal detection criteria.

Shared responsibility

After reviewing the evidence, the court divided its ruling into two parts.

It found that the first transfer of 2 million baht, made at 5pm, was a normal transaction and said the bank could not reasonably have known it was linked to a scam.

However, the court found that the second and third transfers, totalling 2 million baht, were abnormal because they were consecutive transfers made after midnight.

The court said the bank should have had more robust monitoring systems and safeguards to detect such suspicious activity.

However, it also found that the plaintiff had been negligent in transferring money to the scammers and ruled that responsibility for the loss should be shared equally between the plaintiff and the bank.

The ruling is consistent with an amended emergency decree introduced in April 2025 that mandates shared responsibility for financial fraud, based on each party’s level of negligence.

Kasikornbank was ordered to pay 1 million baht in compensation to Miss Charlotte Co Ltd, plus annual interest of 5% from Dec 8, 2024. The bank was also ordered to reimburse court fees proportional to the plaintiff’s successful claim and pay 20,000 baht in legal fees.

Nitithorn “Lawyer James” Kaewto, Ms Charlotte’s lawyer, said the ruling sets an important precedent for businesses in the entertainment industry, as well as the general public, seeking to hold financial institutions accountable for their handling of suspicious transactions, particularly those occurring late at night.