BANGKOK – Police in Thailand said they had dropped the last remaining charges against a wealthy playboy on Friday, eight years after he hit and killed an officer with his Ferrari and fled the country.
The announcement ended a yearlong drama that included the issuance of an international arrest warrant for the heir to one of the country’s most famous companies and largest fortunes and a public outcry over the seemingly separate justice system for richest people in the country.
Just before dawn on a dark Bangkok street on a September night in 2012, a speeding Ferrari hit and killed a motorcycle police officer. The driver fled the scene, but a trail of leaking engine fluid brought police to his door, and the damaged Ferrari a short distance away.
Police arrested the driver, Vorayuth Yoovidhaya, grandson of the inventor of the Red Bull energy drink and heir to one of Thailand’s greatest fortunes. Police said at the time that he had been intoxicated and admitted that his car hit the officer, Wichean Glanprasert.
But in a case often cited as an example of special treatment received by the elite of Thailand, Mr. Vorayuth was never brought to justice. He fled the country and has been living in luxury for years.
On Friday, police said they were dropping the latest charge in the case, reckless driving resulting in the death of someone, and withdrawing arrest warrants from Thailand and Interpol.
A police spokesman, Colonel Krisana Pattanajaroen, said that the police had followed all appropriate procedures in the case.
“It is quite normal,” he said. “We strictly follow the protocol here.”
The process of withdrawing the arrest warrants will be completed soon and Mr. Vorayuth, 37, whose nickname is “Chief”, will be able to return to Thailand if he wishes.
“After that, he will be free,” said Colonel Krisana.
During the investigation, Mr. Vorayuth repeatedly ignored calls from the police. He fled the country in 2017, shortly before the first arrest warrant was issued. Three charges – speeding, driving, and reckless driving causing harm to another person – were dropped earlier because the statute of limitations had expired.
Shortly after the accident, Mr. Vorayuth’s family paid the police officer’s family nearly $ 100,000 in compensation and Mr. Vorayuth resumed his jet set lifestyle, traveling around the world in private Red Bull jets, maintaining a Porsche in London and staying in luxury hotels.
Prosecutors decided to close the case last month, but news of the decision did not appear until this week.
In a letter dated June 18, Mr. Vorayuth, a deputy director of police investigations, Lt. Col. Thanawut Sanguansuk, informed him of the decision. “Therefore, this case is resolved in accordance with the legal process,” the letter said.
The result was what Mr. Wichean’s family, the motorcycle officer, had long expected.
Mr. Vorayuth “is powerful, has many connections, and a lot of money,” the officer’s older brother, Pornanand Glanprasert, said in an interview in 2013.
“If they are ordinary people like us, I think the case is already over,” he said. “He will try with all his might not to be charged, or at least receive a suspended sentence or no punishment.”
