A resident of Banteay Meanchey province has filed a complaint against officials of the provincial branch of the General Directorate of Consumer Protection, Competition and Fraud Repression (CCF) with the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) alleging that they had extorted him for 1.4 million riel ($350).

So Samoeurn, a delivery driver for a transport company, said that on the night of August 31 he was driving his car carrying goods along border ring road 58 in O’Chrou district’s O’Bei Choan commune when he was stopped by CCF officials for an inspection.

They originally imposed a fine of 20 million riel, claiming that his goods did not have proper customs clearance documents.

“They stopped my car at 11pm and kept me there until nearly 3am. I begged them to reduce the fines to 2 million riel. I paid them the 400,000 riel which I had with me and sent them 600,000 riel through electronic payment service provider E-Money. The next day, they came to my house to demand I pay another million,” he said.

Lun Sitha, deputy chief of the CCF Banteay Meanchey branch, said on September 7 that Samoeurn was fined because CCF officials found that he had transported a variety of illegal meatballs, unlicensed wine and 340kg of undated Chinese noodles.

He added that the officials initially set the fine at five million riel, but because he asked for lenience the they agreed to reduce it to two million riel.

“We will give the offender 15 days. If he does not pay the fine, we will send a notification letter to him and give him another 15 days. If he still hasn’t paid it then we will take him to court and follow standard legal procedures,” he said.