A high-ranking policeman has been caught red-handed cheating in an exam organised by the Administrative Court to select new judges.
The court said on Monday the officer, whose name was not released, had sneaked pages containing information about main laws into the testing centre at Thammasat University Rangsit campus in Pathum Thani province on Saturday.
The university was picked as a venue for the exam to select new judges for the Administrative Court of First Instance that day. The Administrative Court of First Instance comprises the central and regional courts.
Judges who supervised the room where the exam taker sat found him looking at the information in the papers and using it to answer questions in the test, it added.
"You must stop taking the test now," a supervisor ordered him in a short video clip. The clip also showed several pages of the A4-size printout the officer illegally took into the room.
The officer was ordered to immediately leave the room for questioning by supervisors, other judges and police from Phathum Thani called in to join the probe.
Police spokesman Pol Lt Gen Achayon Kraithong said on Monday the officer admitted in writing to misconduct during the exam.
The Royal Thai Police did not name him, only saying he is a police colonel working as a deputy chief of the Administrative Division at the Provincial Police Region 8 in Phuket province. He had also been assigned to assist the office of the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc) Region 4 in Nakhon Si Thammarat province.
The spokesman said national police chief Pol Gen Kittharath Punpetch had ordered the Provincial Police Region 8 to probe the case. The colonel could be suspended from duty or even temporarily dismissed from the police force if the investigation finds him guilty. Cheating on exams is deemed a serious disciplinary offence, the spokesman said.
The colonel will also be investigated on the reason for a temporary transfer to the Isoc office and whether he formally requested leave from the office to sit the test.
Safe exam
The court said the test on Saturday was not leaked before the exam date. The papers of the cheating police were not the answers for the exam, as they contained only the information about several laws that can be used to help answer the questions, it added.
Examiners design the questions for the test only hours before the exam starts. Then they are not permitted to leave the room and all communication channels are shut down.
"It is impossible for the questions in the test to be leaked to outsiders," the court said.