Crackdown on Thai monks

Nabbed: Police move in on the wayward abbot

The conduct of all Thailand's Buddhist monks is under scrutiny following the arrest of a senior abbot suspected of leading a double life as an army officer and indulging in sex, luxury cars and alcohol.

Thailand's Education Minister Somsak Prisananantakul said guidelines were being drawn up to monitor the conduct of all the country's monks.

Exposed: The abbot was still wearing monks robes under his army uniform

A network of volunteers, with the help of security officials, will be put in place to watch for possible misconduct and report back to the Religious Affairs Department.

The arrested monk, Thammathorn Wanchai, is also suspected of embezzling money and property from the temple in central Thailand of which he was abbot.

Police say they found bank slips for large amounts of money in his room there.

Red-handed

Thammathorn's secret life caught up with him in spectacular fashion.

Worshippers at his temple in the provincial town of Suphan Buri were shocked to see pictures of him being arrested on national television.

Exposure of the 43-year-old cleric's extracurricular activities followed two days of police undercover surveillance, all recorded on video.

The television report showed the abbot leaving his temple in a black Mercedes before stopping to exchange his saffron robes for the uniform of an army colonel.

Night-time liaison

Sting: The police invited a Thai TV crew to follow their operation

The scene then shifted to a house in suburban Bangkok where the abbot was filmed receiving two young women with whom he proceeded to spend the night.

In the course of his arrest by plainclothes police the next day, the abbot was found to be wearing his monk's robes under his army uniform.

To complete his humiliation, police were shown carrying women's underwear, condoms and bottles of whisky from his Bangkok home.

The abbot also faces charges of impersonating an army officer

Having been stripped of his religious office, Thammathorn is also to be charged with impersonating an army officer and could face up to five years in prison.

Scandals like this are an embarrassingly frequent occurrence for Thailand's Buddhist authorities - a religious order ostensibly devoted to a simple life devoid of worldly pleasures.

Only days earlier, two other senior abbots were defrocked after being caught drinking whisky in a bar.

Such incidents have strengthened claims that corruption and mismanagement within the religious establishment are allowing malpractice to flourish unchecked.