A man from China has been found in Bangkok on Tuesday with a fake Thai ID card in the name of Thailand’s Wattana Phu Ob-orm known to most snooker fans as James Wattana.
Chern Liang, works for a Chinese tour company and has allegedly been using a fake ID for for 22 years. He discovered corrupt officials in the Kanchanaburi area, were prepared to produce the fake ID card for him for a nominal fee and thus agreed to go ahead with the deal. He has been using it ever since.
When officials investigated his claim that he had a family to verify his story, they discovered Chalong and Prasit Kaewwichit and their son Panya but they had no knowledge of anyone going by the name of Wattana and stated they only had the one son.
Further evidence came when they discovered that the man known as Wattana was born in 1969, before his so called parents were married.
When questioned, the Chinese national told police he chose the name because he liked Thailand’s top snooker player James Wattana, who was successful, especially during the 1990s.
Chern is said to be employed by a Chinese tour firm, with a salary of 28,000 baht per month. He denies this however.