Tun Kuntha, chief of Chakry International Check Point in Prey Veng province and his wife Thoeun Channy, a teacher at Panha Khetaram primary school, are selling their land and home to pay off villagers after 10 families sued, accusing them of cheating them out of between $3,000 and $6,000 each to get their sons jobs as policemen.

The villagers, from Kampong Leav district, paid the money between 2014 and 2015. In 2016, when the list of accepted police candidates was announced, none of the families’ sons was accepted.

Vin Vutha, who paid $5,500, told The Post on Wednesday that he had received some $2,000 back from Channy. “My son knew Thoeun Channy from Phnom Penh and he used to see that such payments were successful. Before, the amount of money was small, but later it increased.

“They ask me ‘Do I know any well-connected people?’ Why do I keep believing in them?” Vutha said.

Vutha said at first, the villagers did not want to file complaints to the court. But when Channy still had not returned the money by 2018, they took her to court.

Yan Chandany, who also asked for Channy’s help, said that after suspecting it was a scam, 10 of the 50 allegedly cheated families filed a complaint against Channy to the provincial court which twice summoned villagers, but nothing happened.

She said that on Tuesday, nine people were told by the provincial court that it would speed up the process. She said the other families had not filed a complaint because they had only given $500 to $1,000.

Channy told The Post on Wednesday that she had repaid some money to the people who filed a complaint against her.

“I am resolving this issue because people have defamed me so much. I would like to counter-sue because some stories are not true. They provoked and exaggerated. I didn’t think they would do so as badly as this. It was up to them . . . I never cheated anyone."

“I am repaying step by step. I am finally selling my land but they don’t understand me. They just sued me, and I never countered them because I didn’t want to make the issue bigger. I told them it wasn’t guaranteed 100 per cent.

“The court has helped me resolve the situation. Now, no problem, my husband is resolving it with them. They have investigated and know all about it. They also pity me,” she said.

Channy said she still owes around $22,000 – about $1,000 to $2,000 to each complainant. “There are only six or seven people that I still owe money to because some have withdrawn their case.

“Between 2014 and 2015, I only helped my relatives. When the villagers saw it was always successful, they came to me to ask for help. They are my neighbours."

“This time it was not successful. When I submitted the documents, I listed them as my relatives. I asked Samdech [Sar Kheng]. I spoke honestly but he could not sign them all because some people were too short.

“Now I’ve run out of money. Please let me sell my land and house first,” Channy said.