According to investigation officer at Si Chomphu police station Maj Worapol Srichiengsa, the 50-year-old Malaysian man lodged a complaint and submitted receipts of banking transactions at the station recently.

“He filed a police complaint against his former wife for allegedly cheating him, (after he gave) her money to (operate) a sugarcane plantation business in her hometown in Si Chomphu district,” Worapol told Bernama here today.

The man, he said, met his 32-year-old wife in Hatyai some 11 years ago and decided to get married in Malaysia later. His wife helped the man manage his resort after they tied the knot.

The couple do not have any children together.

The problem, said Worapol, began in 2012 when the husband agreed to his wife’s proposal to start a sugarcane plantation business in her hometown in Si Chomphu.

The husband claimed he began depositing money into his father-in-law’s bank account in 2012 until the end of last year when the couple separated, he said.

After the separation, his former wife returned to her hometown.

“He (the husband) came to us to file a complaint against his former wife. He wants his money back,” said the officer, adding that the man claimed he did not receive any financial returns from his investment in his wife’s sugarcane plantation business.

The police, according to Worapol, advised the man to file another complaint at the Dumrongtham Centre (a government complaint centre) as the case involved a family dispute.

The centre, he said, managed to arrange a meeting between the man and his former father and mother-in-law, without the presence of his former wife, to seek a compromise on the issue.

However, the first meeting, held a few days ago ended with neither party reaching any compromise. Another meeting has been scheduled in the coming days that Worapol himself would attend.

When asked about the whereabouts of the Malaysian’s former wife, the police officer said she had since remarried a Thai man. The officer said the news of the marriage had left the Malaysian man devastated as he had not wanted his wife to leave him.