Sweaty ex-monk Nott rips off top stars for fake concert

Another day, another scam

Ball shows a picure of ex-monk Nott

Police are looking for a colourful ex-monk from Samut Prakan who managed to trick some of the nation’s top performers into a concert con which enabled him to fleece traders in Nakhon Si Thammarat of 3.2 million baht.

Somchart Phupeuk, or Nott 4G as he is also known, also left technicians, performers, caterers and sundry others out of pocket by a million baht or more in a parallel funeral scam hatched hastily at a temple in Nonthaburi late last month.

The ex-monk is now on the run, having fled the temple where the lavish and gaudy “funeral” he arranged was due to unfold hours later, and coincidentally just as those duped into helping stage his supposed concert in the South were tipped off to his plans and started warning their contacts to steer clear.

The revelations have left his myriad victims scratching their heads as to how they could be duped by the swarthy, plump 20-year-old who passed himself off as a young man of means, albeit one who wore the same sweaty set of clothes for days in a row and was never known to part with a single baht.

The bogus funeral alone left large crews of workers installing giant LED screens and a sound and light stage for a five-day, five-night extravaganza supposedly to send off Nott’s father, who had allegedly just died.

An empty casket arrived at the temple, but no body or relatives to accompany it, as no one had, in fact, passed away.

However, caterers, performers, sound and light technicians and various others whom the enteprising ex-monk pulled together to stage his sham funeral were sucked into preparing three pavilions for the lavish event — before Nott, who was coming under pressure to pay a few bills, on July 31 suddenly vanished.

Coincidentally, those duped into helping him stage the Nakhon Si Thammarat concert realised he was the same “Nott’’ in trouble with the law late last year for staging a two-day sham merit-making ceremony, supposedly for his father’s ashes, at Wat Khu Sang, Samut Prakan, where Nott grew up as a child and had also served as a monk.

On that occasion Nott hired a traditional Thai orchestra, likay dance troupe, masked dancers, and Chinese-style banquet but failed to pay a bill amounting to more than 100,000 baht. His creditors complained and Nott turned himself into Crime Suppression Division police, who discovered he was wanted in many provinces for staging various frauds.

It is not known how he managed to escape the law to carry on defrauding people, or why he chooses temples for his scams, when he can never stay around long enough to enjoy the fruits of his labours.

The latest saga started when Nott contacted a handful of the nation’s top comedians and rock stars, accompanied by performers in the Thai traditional arts, inviting them to take part in a two-day concert at Khanom beach in Nakhon Si Thammarat on Aug 17-18.

He asked Ball Chernyim, Jazz Sputnix Papiyong Kookkook, Nakarin “Pang” Kingsak, Naphasin “Num” Sangsuwan, Kom Chuanchuen, Robert Saikwan, among others, to make video clips telling their fans they intended to perform so he could present them to would-be sponsors. They duly obliged, never having met him and few having carried out any checks. He promised to send them deposits, but later reneged.

In fact, Nott took the clip and price quotes also sought from the artists, and showed them to local traders as proof the concert would go ahead. He charged them 1,000 baht each for the extra revenue the concert was likely to bring in. One organiser he booked for the event said he also charged a cheeky 35,000 baht fee for having found them work.

At the same time, Nott had 20,000 tickets printed with a cover price of 800 baht, good for both nights, of which he managed to sell 4,000 before he was stopped in his tracks as the parallel scam he hatched at Pai Luang temple in Bang Bua Thong, Nonthaburi, came undone.

Comedian Ball Chernyim, who was among those to spread word on social media of the concert con when it unravelled late last month, said Nott boasted he would fly over his band and put them up in a good hotel.

Nott went to some lengths to set up the fraud, booking rooms at the hotel where the guests supposedly were to stay — but failing to notify the local council.

Ball said he was tipped off to the concert scam by a victim of the funeral ruse. He called the council, which confirmed no one had booked space for the concert.

“We sent him our quote for the concert and a clip as requested, which was like handing him a weapon. He used as tools to defraud traders in Khanom,” he said, adding he felt bad for the market traders tricked into supporting a concert in which he was billed to appear.

Victims including Ball; LED sceen installer “Pop” Samdaow; Arun “Ton” Sadsaeng, a van owner who ferried Nott about to promote the concert; and Sawai Homthong, owner of a sound-and-light stage hired for the funeral, aired their grievances on TV last week after Nott’s duplicity came to light.

The five-day funeral he arranged in Nonthaburi was perhaps the more enterprising scam, though it appears to have been hatched at the last minute. Van driver Ton said Nott hired him to promote the concert in a trip which was to take them from Khanom to Nonthaburi and Bangkok.

Ton

“He duped some students into performing a mini-concert at one nightspot where Nott also took to the stage to sing. Patrons who paid for entry left in disgust. I had to tell the students to stop as I was afraid the patrons would beat them up. 

''Nott also hired a group of coyote dancers to sell tickets for the concert at the front of the stage. No one bought them, as no one believed him. He failed to pay them or the students,” he said.

“On our way back we stopped for a simple khao tom meal but again Nott failed to pay. The students had to ask around to raise the bill, but no one had any money except for the driver,” he said.

Later, Nott asked him about his work, and Ton said he also sold funeral caskets. He joked about entering a casket lid at Nott’s concert for a lucky draw, which he thinks now gave Nott the idea of hatching his next scam. 

“I told him we would need to refuel before we got to Bangkok, and he said he would arrange it. We went to bed. The next morning, he greeted me with news his father had just died, which I thought was a remarkable coincidence,” Ton said.

“He asked me to help organise a funeral in Nonthaburi, so I contacted an undertaker I know at Pai Luang temple. He called lighting and sound people, a likay troupe and the Thai orchestra to play. I wouldn’t give him a casket, but he ordered one from a shop,” he said.

“Nott laid out this dream of giant LED screens in place of a backdrop of flowers, with one of my caskets containing his father in front. I thought, hang on, we have travelled from Nakhon Si Thammarat to Nonthaburi and he has yet to pay for a thing. Now he wanted me to give him a casket,” Ton said.

His suspicions were further aroused when Nott kept changing details of where his father died. “He gave me the names of three hospitals — first he said Police General Hospital. I was surprised, as I go there often. Then he said Chulalongkorn. I thought, they moved him there mighty fast. On day three it was Siriraj.”

Ton said Nott’s scruffy appearance also made him wonder. “I thought, how how many rich men dress like that? We were in together four days, and he hadn’t changed once. If he took off his trousers they’d stand up straight.”

Sawai

Mr Sawai, who hires out sound and light stages in Khanom, where Nott’s concert was to be held, said Nott asked for him to arrange a stage for the funeral in Nonthaburi and he travelled there the same day, as did Mr Pop, who installed the LED screens, taking with him a crew of 30 from Kanchanaburi, with their gear loaded into a six-wheeler truck.

Arriving the next night were the Chinese banquet organisers with enough food to feed 100 guests. They were able to offer their spread only to the workers present as the funeral — missing a body, the host, and guests — had yet to start.

“I had asked Nott since the day before why his father’s body still hadn’t arrived,” Mr Sawai said. “He said his father had many wives. He was the son of a minor wife himself, and relatives were fighting over the body. However, he had agreed with mother they would get the body the next day.

“I said never mind, we could carry on erecting the stage with ease. If there was a body sitting there we’d feel awkward. Nott kept saying his phone had a problem, as the signal kept disappearing. I urged him to go get it fixed, and he agreed. The buffet arrived later that evening, but by that time we couldn’t get hold of Nott.” No one has seen him since.

Pop, the LED screen installer, said an eagle-eyed youngster recalled the well-publicised con which Nott, still in the monkhood, had hatched at the Samut Prakan temple late last year. He asked if he was the same Nott who had ripped off people there. Nott denied it, saying the culprit in that case was a junior who had impersonated him.

Mr Ton said the victims of the funeral ruse went to police, but they refused to take a record as the scam had yet to occur. “Meanwhile, victims kept arriving including the Thai orchestra ensemble. They wouldn’t believe me when I said they had been duped and proceeded to unload all their gear,” he said.

Pop said he is puzzled why con artist Nott returned to his temple scam of old when he could have resorted to some other trick. “He chose to mount another fake funeral, as if he has a troubled mind and perhaps some complex over not having put on a decent bash for his dad when he died,” he ventured.

In Nonthaburi, as the search for Nott continues, Bang Bua Thong police say they are gathering evidence from damaged parties with a view to laying charges.