Andrew Drummond

on September 28, 2009

Link to Evening Standard Link to Daily Telegraph

. 6 Comments

From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok, Monday September 28

Link to Daily Mail

Link to the SUN

From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok, Monday September 28
An inquiry was launched today into how five passengers died including two young Britons when a brand new tourist boat sank in Vietnam on just its second passenger trip.

Timothy Roney and Karen Puddifoot

From reports in the country’s Quang Ninh province it has already been established that the boat was neither insured nor allowed to operate after dark when the accident happened in a tropical storm late last week.
The young Britons aged Tim Roney, 22 and Karen Puddifoot, 27, were cycling around the world to raise cash for the British Lung Foundation. They were among 25 passengers on the tourist three story cruiser on Halong Bay in the Gulf of Tonkin, when storms, which have been ravaging south east Asia for the last week, struck.
The British friends, from Northwood, set off on their trip in June and aimed to cycle 21,000 miles through 12 countries. Before leaving Mr Roney, a ski instructor, said: “I’ve always dreamed of doing something like this. A few people have told me I must be mad but this is the biggest adventure of my life.”
In a statement Mr Roney’s family said: “Tim was extremely sociable, talented and adventurous and always had a smile on his face.”
Ms Puddifoot’s family said: “She was talented, hard working, independent, strong-willed and brave. Losing Karen has left a deep hole in our family.” A former Watford Grammar School for Girls pupil, Ms Puddifoot studied at Wimbledon School of Art before working in the film industry.

Typical Halong Bay junk

The boat they had chosed in Halong Bay was the boat’s first outing apart from one earlier trip under-going sea trials, it was reported today.
Two Vietnamese and a Frenchman also drowned in the incident yesterday. Other passengers were treated for shock and minor injuries. The British couple had boarded the boat at Ti-Tong island along with the French man. The incident happened an hour after dusk last Thursday.
A spokesman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said today: “Our consular officials from Hanoi are providing consular assistance”.
“Arrangements are being made through an insurance company to fly their bodies home.”
British Embassy officials travelled to Halong Bay, some 100 miles east of the capital, Hanoi, to help officials confirm the identify the two UK travellers.
The boat sank in strong winds and choppy waters as it was returning to port last Thursday evening. Twenty-five tourists and seven crew members were on board.
The boat QN-5298, owned by the Bien Mo Company, was heading for Cat Hai island in neighbouring Haiphong Province when it was hit by the storm, the Captain Do Long told police. The boat capsized and water filled two of the three levels, spilling the passengers and crew into the water. Some passengers were able to climb to the third level.
The passengers were buffeted by high winds, rough waves, and driving rain.
The survivors were picked up by other boats which rushed to the scene.
According to Thahnien newspaper in Vietnam the brand new boat built at a cost of £360,000 said Pham Van Bac, the director of the Bien Mo Company, and was considered to be the “biggest and most beautiful in the area” but it was not insured and not licensed yet to operate at night.
An investigation has been launched by Quang Ninh police and the provincial authority.

British woman ‘raped’ by taxi driver in coconut plantation -Thailand

Published

on September 28, 2009

Link Daily Telegraph Link to Metro

. 5 Comments

From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok, Sunday September 27
Link Daily Mail Link to Daily Express

A 28-year British woman, who hired a taxi driver to take her back to her room on the Thai holiday island of Koh Samui, was instead taken to a coconut plantation, dragged screaming from the car, beaten and then raped,it was claimed today.
After the attack the woman was then robbed of her cash and dumped by the road to walk home.
Today police charged a 21-yr-old local taxi driver with rape and are questioning an accomplice who used his pick-up to dump the woman referred to as ‘Lilly’ (not real name) afterwards and then robbed her of 1,700 Thai baht (£31.60p)
Police on Koh Samui say that the 21-yr-old driver picked up the woman, an English Language teacher, as a fare early on Saturday morning in Chaweang Beach, but drove past the woman’s lodgings in Lamai Beach and took her instead to house in coconut plantation.
“He dragged her out of the car against her will and beat her in the process. He then raped her in the house,” said Deputy Police Commander Paiboon Krajakchan.

“His friend arrived in a pick-up and then friend then transferred the semi-conscious woman to a pick-up truck and dumped her beside the road near Lamai. He took all her money.”

Katherine Horton

Paiboon Krajakchan said: “We are treating this matter seriously. It is important that Koh Samui is seen as a safe destination for tourists.”
Koh Samui has been the scene of a number of rapes of British and foreign tourists. The most infamous case was that of Katherine Horton who was raped and murdered on Lamai Beach on New Year’s day 2006 by two fisherman who boasted to friends that she was ‘fun and delicious’.
The fishermen were sentenced to death, reduced later to life imprisonment.

Camera director of ‘Big Trouble in Thailand’ makes ‘tactical withdrawal’

Published

on September 21, 2009

. 22 Comments

From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok,
September 20 2009

Pictures Gavin Hill/Vera
A British producer cameraman has had to flee Thailand after filming a sequence in which British Royal Marines were held at gunpoint by Thai mafia after hiring a Jet Ski on a paradise beach.
The cameraman Gavin Hill, 40, from Manchester, a former bureau chief for Associated Press Television, was today back in London, after fleeing Bangkok, as his Thai crew faced up to a year in jail.
They stand accused of assisting in the filming of a sequence which could ‘damage the country’s image’. A battle with the Thai authorities has raged for two weeks.
Hill, who also produced ‘Crime Squad’ for the BBC with Sue Lawley, and a series for Real TV said today (Sunday) : “I’ve made a tactitcal withdrawal and am in London to discuss how we can help our Thai colleagues. But yes, I did not wish to argue my case from prison.

Marine Tebbott, JJ, and producer cameraman Gavin Hill

“We filmed the mafia but suddenly we are the criminals apparently. The atmosphere is a little bit hysterical. The Marines are behind me thank god. ”
The gun incident happened on Phuket when a young marine Jack Tebbott from Leicester was kidnapped by tattooed mafia figures, who control what’s for sale on Phuket’s Patong Beach.
Twenty-one-year old Tebbott was seized after his colleagues from Delta Company 40 Commando told a scammer to ‘get lost’ after they were presented with a bill for 60,000 Thai baht (£1094) for damaging a jet ski which they had hired.
The marines, from 40 Commando based in Taunton, have lost three men fighting the Taliban in Helmand province of Afghanistan. Delta section’s most famous Marine is Joe Townsend who lost his legs in a mine explosion.
They had been warned about the scam and told not to hire jet skis before after arriving on HMS Bulwark in June, but did not anticipate coming up against a gunman in a Thai holiday resort.
Gavin Hill had received permission from the Thai authorities to film a series called ‘Thai Cops’ , a reality show which followed British volunteers in the Thai Tourist Police dealing with the hundreds of thousands of British tourists who travel to Thailand every year. However ,as a result of this incident and others, the title of the series had to be changed to ‘Big Trouble in Thailand’.
The Marines incident happened after producers received complaints from tourists and went to a Jet Ski operator called Winai Naiman, nicknamed JJ, to get his side of the story.
On camera he admitted beating up tourists if they did not pay.

The foreign and Thai production crew for 'Big Trouble in Thailand'

Then he called the production crew to film after catching Marine Tebbot and taking to him his yard three miles from the beach. Unknown to him Hill was also filming with the Marines. Naiman brought out a gun with a telescopic sight after a section of Delta Company react to a distress call.
The affair was settled after the arrival of Marine Police Sergeant and Detatchment Commander Tim Wright, from London, who told Naiman his was ‘corrupt and a crook’ after examining the jet ski and finding the damaged area had already turned brown proving it was old. But Sergeant Wright finally agreed to pay 35,000 baht, over £600.
Royal Marine Police Sergeant Tim Wright said at the 40 Commando base in Somerset: “I got my men out of that situation without claret being spilt and that was the important thing.
“The Thais are trying to say my men were not threatened or held at gunpoint. But by doing this they are questioning my integrity. I do not like my integrity being questioned especially by a two bit crook.
“We will make representations to the Foreign Office. The warning to tourists is not sufficient.
“ If Thailand wants to make a fuss about this I am happy to support the producer and raise the level to that of diplomatic incident. The case of Marine Tebbott was not the only case of extortion I had to deal with, not by far.”
The Foreign Office advisory warns traveller to ensure that the people whom they hire jet skis from are reputable. But they do not warn specifically about the extortions involved and that violence has been used.
Tourists have been milked for as much as 200,000 bat during these incidents in Thailand according to a group of foreign consuls, who estimated on the Thai island of Koh Samui jet ski operators, working with local police, had scammed nearly £100,000 out of tourists between December and April of this year.
“In almost all cases the police are called they make the tourists pay out and then they get the commission from the jet ski operators. In most cases it is old damage. In a case of new damage the cost of repair would not normally be more than £50, ” a local consul said on condition of anonymity.

Filming with Thai Tourist Police in Phuket

A spokesman for the Thai film board said the crew had violated Article 34 of the motion picture law by not having the contents examined by a Tourism and Sports Ministry film committee before they were broadcast abroad.
And Seksan Nakawong, director-general of the Office of Tourism Development, said the film-makers also violated Article 23 of the same law for making a film tarnishing the reputation of Thailand. The penalties are a £18,000 fine and a year in jail or both.
Meanwhile Police Lt. Gen Santhan Chayanont, chief of Provincial Police Region 8, whose officers are accused of being involved in the scams, says he has ordered his men to bring in all the Thai ‘collaborators’ .
40 Royal Marine Commando lost one officer Lt. John Thornton and two men, Marine David Marsh and Marine and Corporal Damian Mulvihill during a seven month tour of duty fighting the Taliban in Helmand Province in 2008.

Royal Marine Joe Townsend

The actions and conduct of Delta Company’s Marine Joe Townsend, who lost both his legs in a mine explosion in Afghanistan, have been held up in the UK as a shining example of courage of the British forces.

Marine Townsend recently accompanied Britain’s Prince Harry to New York to meet US serviceman who had lost limbs in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Karen Elephant Patrol -Andrew Drummond. See comments below

Foreigner arrested after ‘Big Trouble in Thailand’ documentary

Published

on September 17, 2009

Gold fever sinks a posse of investors - Erika Fry Bangkok Post

. 19 Comments

“I’m flying with the eagles,” says Australian con man,” but after landing at Bangkok airport he is in police lock-up.

From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok, September 17th

Lance Shaw's passport

An Australian con-man working with impunity out of Pattaya has been arrested by police, who were about to be criticised by tourists for their inaction, in the television documentary series ‘Big Trouble in Thailand’.
Immigration Police arrested 64-yr-old Lance Frederick Shaw when he arrived back in Thailand early on Tuesday morning on a flight TG996 from Australia.
Shaw, who had allegedly conned people out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in a gold investment scam and who has a history of fraud in Australia dating back over 25 years, had boasted to an angry British investor: “”Greed is good! There is no police or lawyers that money can’t buy,” according to the Bangkok Post.
He also wrote: “Investments are risky things, you know. I have enough money to last me two lifetimes and with it I can go where I want when I want and fly with the eagles.”
Furious British investors were filmed making their complaint nearly two years ago, when a pilot programme was made for the series ‘Big Trouble in Thailand.” A warrant for his arrest was issued in July 2008. But Shaw had been happily living house number 670/70 in the Rama Gardens estate in Pattaya Naklua. Investors told the Bangkok Post that although they had paid police 10,000 baht they believed the inaction was because Shaw had connections with police.

When they were contacted nearer the transmission date an angry investor Philip Shields, from Liverpool, who gave Shaw 5,841, 593 (£105,000) said: “The Thai police have done absolutely nothing. Neither have our Thai lawyers.” In the documentary an angry victim is seen banging on Shaw’s gate and ringing the bell - to no answer - without any assistance from Pattaya Police. Pattaya Court issued a warrant of arrest for Shaw 14 months ago.
It is believed a rough copy of the third programme in the series ‘Big Trouble in Thailand’ was shown to senior police in Pattaya prior to the arrest passed on by a Pattaya Police Volunteer. But an expose by Erika Fry in the Bangkok Post over a month ago may also have been noticed.
The investors, say they will be watching the development of this case with interest. Meanwhile Shaw has been charged with defrauding Philip Shields, from Liverpool.The programme, the third in an eight part series made by Vera for the Bravo Channel goes out next Monday and is being edited to include the arrest.

I apologise to the Thai people but blame the film-makers - JJ (updated)

Published

on September 15, 2009

. 22 Comments

HMS Bulwark in Phuket

Phuket jet-ski operator JJ Naiman apologised to the Thai people for disappointing them on national television tonight, but said he was tricked into appearing on the controversial British television series ‘Big Trouble in Thailand.”

The jet ski operator who was shown bringing a gun out on British Royal Marines from HMS Bulwark, who were on Phuket on R & R, said he had been misled into thinking the film was ‘good for tourism’.

And Channel 3 gave a sympathetic hearing to JJ’s claim that the gun incident was set-up. He claimed the producer filmed him with the gun separately and then introduced it into his confrontation with the Royal Marine, 21-yr-old Jack Tebbott.

Producer Gavin Hill reacted to the claim with mild amusement. “I do have problems with the way this show is being put together but the gun incident is quite clear. It is a rolling shot, there are no cuts except when JJ tells me to stop filming

“Perhaps he wanted to impress the Marines to show them, look I can use a gun too, but they definitely took it as a threat and have already posted their views up on the internet.

Royal Marine Police Sergeant Wright (right) confronts JJ

“JJ is talking to Tebbott when he sorts of jumps a little and heads towards his hut. I follow with the camera rolling thinking, well I hope he is not just going to take a pee, then he takes out the gun and brings it out.

“I think they thought, ‘Boy we are dealing with a loose cannon here, maybe a whacko!”

“If somebody wants to make an issue of this I think I am on pretty strong ground.

“We of course never told JJ we were making a film to promote tourism. We told him we were filming with the Thai police to show how Brits behave on holiday.

“Actually they day we met JJ he said he had just come out of jail for having no licences for his guns.”

The gun - don't those pale legs belong to Marines?

Footnote: The editors in London did however move sound from another part of the video and put it over the point when JJ arrived with the gun. Gavin Hill has complained about this.

Here are his comments:

No -(this refers to my question. Did I get it wrong, was this not rolling footage?) but good detective work going on there,(noticing the sound had been changed picked up by one website here (www.thailandlandofsmiles.com) which accords with what I told you about Vera moving the audio.

There is no cut from the moment JJ walks out of his hut-like place where he keeps his guns.

I tilted down with the camera when he said don’t film. After that there’s the effect of the TV going on the blink.

Why did they put that in? Because JJ goes and puts the gun back in his hut and everything fizzles out - that was the climax.

I can upload the video tomorrow - have it here, if that would help.

In terms of the link below you are right - there is no cut between JJ emerging with the gun, hidden behind his back and approaching the Marines, during which time I’m focused on the gun.

Anyway, the point is - in the midst of negotiations, whilst awaiting Tim, MP - JJ produces the gun and the Marines are justifiably rattled. They were, they said so at the time and have posted as much since. But they weren’t scared out of their wits because, I guess, they’re used to being around guns and I think they’re quite smart, level-headed chaps not prone to panic.

I was worrying at the time far more than the Marines were.

Hope this clears things up. The fact remains that Vera did over-sensationalize this clip by moving the earlier audio over to JJ approaching the Marines, gun in hand. I am troubled by this, but aside from dramatic effect I’m not sure it alters what was an unnerving and unpredictable situation with a drunken lout backed up by thugs, holding a man to ransom and demanding cash from him. The gun was an unnecessary addition and escalation to the proceedings and JJ only has himself to blame for that - whatever his motive was for bringing out the gun. And it’s the only moment where I’m filming without his consent - that said he was to cover it all with a blanket release form.

Swiss couple flee jet ski operator in terror - Chaweng

Published

on September 15, 2009

. 12 Comments

A Swiss couple were reported to have fled Koh Samui yesterday after telling local Embassy officials that they that the couple had been threatened with a beating and rape if they failed to pay 65,000 baht (2000 Swiss francs).

A source close to the Swiss Embassy said the couple were escorted to the airport by a consular representative and safely boarded a 3pm flight from Koh Samui to Bangkok after the threats by an operator on Chaweng Beach. “The woman was visibly shaking in the departure area.”

Officially the Swiss Embassy Consular department said they could not comment on individal cases and would neither confirm or deny the report. The couple could not be contacted to verify the report.

According to one Consular source, from data gathered together by foreign consular representatives between December and April this year there were in the region of 150 cases of tourists having to pay for damaged jet skis on Koh Samui, approximately one a day.

The controversial documentary series ’Big Trouble in Thailand’ is expected to highlight a jet ski problem in Chaweng in a later programme in the series.

Thai jet ski boss took cash off the US Marines too.

Published

on September 13, 2009

. 40 Comments

USS Boxer - US Navy Jon Rasmussen

A now notorious Thai jet-ski operator accused of ripping off British Royal Marines in the infamous ‘damaged jet ski scam’ also took cash off US Marines in an incident just days later – and was ‘wai-ed’ by one US Marines in an apparent plea for lenience.

'I'm so sorry sir, I will pay back I promise' Marine tells JJ

The US Marines from the Boxer ARG (Amphibious Readiness Group) which made a call in Phuket just three days after HMS Bulwark had left, handed over the cash without even a protest – because, believes film producer Gavin Hill, they had disobeyed an order banning them from hiring the machines..

Pay out

The US Marines were then handed over to the Naval Police as Thai police watched, after payment of 40,000 baht was handed over by a Naval police officer who asked for receipts, after the Marines used their credit cards. They later faced disciplinary proceedings.
“You’re going to have trouble when you get on board,” JJ tells one of the US Marines.
Gavin Hill, who faced allegations made to police by JJ (who was subsequently arrested for extorting 35,000 Baht of the Royal Marines) that he had set up an earlier incident with the Royal Marines, who were seen to be held at gunpoint, today released more footage obtained during the filming of ‘Big Trouble in Thailand’ as the controversy raged across Thai TV stations.
“I have released this material so that nobody can be in any doubt that any of these sequences were set up. I just shot as things happened. I should not have needed to defend my integrity, but it has now become an issue and I have to deal with it,” said producer/cameraman Hill.

With police in attendance JJ prepares his bill

The film begins with an interview with JJ being asked what has happened as he waits with a group of Marines on Patong seafront in Phuket on June 26th.
“It’s serious damage. We have to make a new bottom. If we can’t make new bottom the jet-ski will sink.
“If a boat gets a hole it will sink.”
He claims later the Marines ran the boat over some rocks.
JJ estimates the damage at 70,000 to 80,000 Thai baht, but again the damage to paint on the boat’s hull does not seem , from images, to be that costly to repair.
“They have agreed to pay for it, but they do not know how much. They give too little money,” says JJ.
As a group of US Marines wait, a large naval patrol officer arrives having been called by mobile phone. There is no

No protest

issue. The Marines have to pay he says. There will be no argument. He has a short discussion with JJ.
As the group waits for police to arrive a young Latino Marine wais to JJ saying: “I’m so sorry sir. I’m sorry. I’ll pay back I promise.”
The arrival both of Patong ’Beach Patrol’ and a motorcycle officer is met with much wai-ing and saluting. The Naval policeman counts out the cash to the ‘manager’ and the US Marines are handed into the custody of Naval Police.
Another bad day in paradise.
Said Gavin Hill: “It was quite a different situation that that of the Royal Marines. The US Marines did not want the cameras. They also knew, I believe, that, as they had breached an order, they could not argue. I have no idea whether they caused the damage or not, but they admitted it. They clearly did not want any trouble.”

“JJ said it would take two weeks to repair the boat. In the meant

Bt40,000 worth of damage

ime he had to charge a day rate also for loss of earnings.”

Gavin Hill insists that the Thai authorities have overreacted to the British television series and says he had no intention of hurting Thailand, but filmed what was in front of him.

The first in an eight part series called ‘Trouble in Tourist Thailand’ went out last Monday and showed how Royal Marines had to hand over 35,000 baht to JJ, even though, claimed Marine Police Sergeant Tim Wright it was ‘old damage’.
Thai authorities have announced a crackdown on the scams, although there is evidence they may have been part and parcel of them.

Next stop the gangplank?

Footnote: The highest known payment made by tourists in this scam has been 200,000 on Koh Samui. That involved a collision between two Jet skis. Unless you know better.

British Royal Marines ready to go to ‘war’ over Thai gun confrontation

Published

on September 12, 2009

“Thailand is awesome. The people are good and sound. Today was a bit different” - Marine Jack Tebbott

. 23 Comments

(More rushes from ‘Big Trouble in Thailand)

Link: JJ: My uncle is big Captain in police station
From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok, September 13
Royal Marines who claim they were swindled and held at gunpoint while on R&R in Thailand said tonight that they were ‘ready to go to war’ over an alleged cover-up of the incident.

Royal Marine Face-off The Marines of Delta Company, 40 Commando, based in Taunton, who were held at gunpoint by a Jet Ski operator on the Thai holiday island of Phuket, said they would take the matter to government to government level, if Thai authorities tried to shift the blame.
And they added that they would stick by a British producer/cameraman, who filmed the whole incident, and who now faces arrest accused by the Thai authorities of ‘setting up’ the scene for filming.
“The Thai authorities should choose to hold an adult approach to this incident. If not, we are willing to raise the level of this dispute to that of a diplomatic incident, though of course we will have to go through legal channels,“ said Marine Police Sergeant and Detachment Commander Tim Wright.
The row follows an incident which happened when Delta Company were on ‘R &R’ on the Thai holiday island of Phuket earlier this year.

Royal Marine Police Sergeant Wright (right) confronts JJ

The marines were held at gun-point and surrounded by Thai thugs after one of their number, 21-yr-old Marine Jack Tebbott, from Leicester, was accused of damaging a jet-ski and faced demands of over £1,200 in compensation.
Violence was only avoided when Royal Marine Police Sergeant Tim stepped and agreed to authorise a payment.

Marine Sergeant Tim Wright

The whole scene was captured on film by British cameraman producer Gavin Hill. The Jet Ski thug, known as JJ, has since been arrested on charges of extortion. But he has given a statement saying that the film was set up.
Yesterday Thai authorities began steps to try and block a series currently running on a minor British television channel and they said they wanted to question the producer over the ‘set up’.
They have also countermanded all ‘film release’ forms which were required for the filming and transmssion. Last night Royal Marine Police Sergeant Tim Wright from London said: “From what I gather people in Thailand are trying to impugn the reputation of the Royal Marines and of the producer cameraman involved.
“I have told the producer cameraman Gavin Hill that I and the lads will stand by him. What he recorded on film was the absolute truth. I do not like my integrity or that of the Marines being questioned. I live by my integrity.
“I especially do not like my integrity being questioned by a two bit swindler. If need be we will escalate this to a diplomatic incident. We also would like to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to put out an official warning on their Travel Advisory to Thailand.
“It is quite alarming to see how the film maker s are being treated. The Thais should be dealing with the problem not trying to blame someone else.”
The row over the ‘jet ski mafia’ began after the first of an eight part series called ‘Big Trouble in Thailand’ went to air last Monday on the Bravo Channel. The film shows the Commandos, who had arrived in Thailand on HMS Bulwark after a tour in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province, restraining themselves as the armed foul mouthed gang leader made his threats and demands for money.

Marine Jack Tebbott

Although the channel has only a small audience in the UK, copies have been circulating heavily in Thailand.
In the programme Marine Tebbott is accused of causing over £1000 worth of damage to a jet ski and eventually pays out the equivalent of £627. But Sergeant Wright, who examined the boat, insisted that the damage was old, very old, by examining the stained fibre glass”
He had already had to deal with other cases: “‘You are a crook. You are corrupt,” he tells JJ who replies: “I’m a f….g normal person. I am a businessman”. In rushes released yesterday JJ also claims: “I’m not worried. My uncle is big police here!”
A Royal Marine said later: “We could all have got out of there but there would have been claret spilt.”

The ‘damaged jet ski’ con is widespread in Thailand and complaints have already been made by several Embassies, including the British, Australian and Chinese, to the Thai authorities.

Prior to the film’s transmission the Provincial Governor had been ordered by Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister to act to end the rip-offs to preserve the country’s image for tourism.

Reliable reports say that corrupt police take a 20 per cent cut from all payments.

Gavin Hill - hung out to dry?

Meanwhile producer Gavin Hill, who was working for comedian Rory Bremner’s Vera Productions, said: “At the moment our relationship has come to an end. They have not given any support. They are also not honouring some promises I made to the Thai authorities or corrections I am making to the scripts.

“They appear to have left me out to dry. The Thai authorities are trying to get the series stopped. But actually if they look at it closely they come off quite well. We were primarily looking at British tourists on holiday.
“I actually love Thailand and would not wish to harm the country at all. The authorities cannot see who is doing the harm.”

The series which was shot with the co-operation of the Thai Tourist Police was originally called ‘Thai Cops’. The title was then changed to ‘Big Trouble in Tourist Thailand’ and the Thai Film Board protested.
“I told the production company that title was offensive to Thailand, but my views were apparently not ‘taken on board’ as they claimed they would be. It’s a mess.
““The situation with the Marines and JJ was real and menacing. It was not set up or scripted. I just recorded what happened”.

JJ's boys look on

The Great Thai jet ski tourist scam - a producer bares all

Published

on September 11, 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzeui3rC5yo

. 22 Comments

The series ‘Big Trouble in Thailand’ has provoked quite a controversy across the internet blogs in this part of the world and is now begining to hit the mainstream Thai media.

Royal Marine Police Sergeant Wright confronts JJ

Accusations have been made. Was the confrontation with the Marines set up? What sort of guy is JJ – the Thai mafia figure featured in this seemingly shaming episode for the Thai tourist industry.
Anyway Gavin Hill the producer/director is throwing the issue wide open. He says he has not formed a judgment, but of course the film had to be cut and edited, and it is apparent that although his comments were ‘taken on board’, perhaps not all were acted upon.
You can form your own opinion of JJ by clicking on the following links.
We all get edited. Make your own mind up.

Of course JJ may seem worse! Personally I may have cut the film in pretty much the same way, I think the producer is entitled to make a judgment. We start today with JJ on the beach whinging about bad tourists.

and continue with him whinging on the beach. I rather picked up on the piece where JJ said : ” We call the police”

http://www.youtube.com/user/BigTroubleInThailand#play/all/uploads-all/1/yFJsyJccTWE

He believes a lot of foreigners have money to spare. He just needs to feed his family.

They come off the beach tomorrow, Saturday, not before time, when I am sure we will hear about JJ’s police contacts!

Meanwhile JJ has not sold himself to me, although to be sure there are some idiots hiring jet skis from time to time.

Arrest follows ‘extortion’ of Royal Marines in Thailand

Published

on September 10, 2009

. 23 Comments

Arrest follows British television documentary

From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok, September 9th 2009
Pictures: Andrew Chant/Gavin Hill/

Face off Royal Marine Police Sergeant Wright and JJ

Thai authorities have arrested the leader of a Thai mafia gang and charged with him with extortion based solely on the evidence of a British television documentary.
Police today were holding a Thai known locally a JJ Naiman, aged 27, after he was seen on a British television programme trying to extort over £1000 from a British Royal Marine who had rented a jet-ski on the holiday island of Phuket.
The province’s governor Wichai Praisa-nob also stepped into the row today and called a meeting of police, jet-ski operators, Marine Police, and local government officials to discuss what action would be taken. They are also to be shown the film. He said he was considering banning jet skis from the island.
The British documentary ‘Big Trouble in Thailand’, which went to air on Monday on the Bravo Channel, showed Royal Marines, who arrived in Phuket on HMS Bulwark, after a tour of Helmand Province, Afghanistan, being held at gun point in a local boat yard run by local mafia.
Royal Marine Face-off The row was only resolved after the arrival of Marine Police Sergeant Tim Wright who defused the situation but not before exposing the Thai gangleader as a ‘corrupt crook’. The Marine Jack Tebbott, 21, from Leicester (right) eventually paid just over £600.
Tim Wright said: “These men openly threatened serving military personnel whilst on R&R in Thailand. The important thing is that I got them out of there with no one being hurt, other than pride and in the wallet. I don’t remember swearing but apologise if I did! The other important thing to remember is don’t hire jet skis in Thailand.”
The jet-ski con is widespread. Tourists are forced to pay for damage which they clearly have not created, but the mafia gangs have had assistance from corrupt police officers, who, according to one source, claim 20 per cent.

Copies of the programme are now widely available on the internet. Further programmes could also embarrass Thailand. A well known police rip-off on the island of Koh Phangan where police collect £10,000 every month from touri Royal Marine Face-off sts on minor drugs charges on the threat of having to go to jail pending trial, is already getting exposure.
The boyfriend of one girl arrested says he received a demand to find £1,400 for possessing a small amount of cannabis, others had to pay more. For normal Thais the fine can be as little as £50.
And a similar jet ski scam will also be exposed on the Thai island of Koh Samui.
British Producer Gavin Hill said: “This was not designed to be an investigative programme. We just filmed what was going on in front of us.”
He said however the next programme in the series probably reflected more on bad British behavior than that of Thais.

“I am a little surprised at the big reaction now. This seems to have been going on for a long time.”

JJ Naiman has been refused bail. Allegations that he had been paid to help set up the scene were described by Gavin Hill as ‘hardly credible’. “We had to cut a lot of the footage. I am satisfied that what was presented was the absolutely correct portrayal of the situation. I have not taken any side.”

‘We’re not all Rob Roys ye know’

Published

on September 9, 2009

. 1 Comment

Blog only
Dropped down last night to the Soi 8 bar on, Sukhumvit Soi 8 of course, for the ‘wake’ of Lydia Riach. People familiar with Scottish wakes of course will know they are a celebration of a life, rather than the mourning of a death and this was no exception.
Some 200 people attended the cremation and this brought out the Bangkok Scots in force and oddly enough Scandahoofians too. With a Norseman pouring large tumblers of ‘black’ I found myself joining in ‘The Skye boat song’, ‘No awa abide awa’ , ‘Flower of Scotland’ ‘Will ye no come back again’ and of course the old time classic ‘A wee doch and dorris’. Well I was joining in quietly. I didnt want to be shamed for getting any words wrong.
A good night. I can’t remember leaving. And I don’t know whose umbrella I came home with, not from the Soi 8 bar, because I was still soaked when I remember meeting some Brit foreign office people in another bar later.

Anyway it was a warm and cheerful event and the crowd probably represented Lydia and Dougie’s popularity here. Thai Police made a nice gesture by also attending the cremation.

I am Scottish of course but as I have what people regard as a public school English accent I have difficulty convincing people. I was educated at boarding schools in Scotland but as my father was a pilot I had to live in the home counties (mostly Berkshire) within driving distance of Heathrow. I usually fall back defensively on the old: “We’ll, we’re not all Rob Roys ye know”. I am clearly not getting the message across, because at one point Dougie made a funny comment about the English then apologised to me.

drummond-clansman If (left) this is what my ancestors looked like maybe I should just keep my mouth shut. I wouldn’t want to meet him down Sukhumvit
Actually as connoisseurs of this site will know from recent revelations I went to school at the Abbey in Fort Augustus, Inverness-shire and this was at the same time as Dougie Riach and his brother Eddie went to Inverness Academy. We probably had a few rucks at Rugby ( Ahem I think Inverness Academy was one of the easier sides to beat!)

Anyway I had bettor not dwell on this as it was a Drummond who lost the Battle of Cullodon (near Inverness) for Prince Charlie. Scotland thereafter could only rule the world by joining up with the English.
The last wake I was invited to was one at Drumnadrochit on the banks of Loch Ness. At the time I was Scottish News Editor at the News of the World. Each year a bunch of us, which always included Jimmy Grylls, News Editor of the Scottish Daily Mail, Wee Nigel Benson , a vertically challenged reporter with the Glasgow Evening Times, and stocky Glaswegian Bobby Orr, would hire a cruiser from Inverness and weave down the Caledonian Canal.
Every year, fortified from our ’40 ouncers’ of Bells, Wee Nigel would also abandon ship after seeing ghosts off Invergarry Castle. Eventually Nigel died, though not from drowning in loch water. I was away but Jimmy and Bobby went up for his funeral and wake to ‘Drum’.
As they respectfully viewed ‘Wee Nigel’ in his coffin Bobbie Orr said: “He’s looking awfie good. In fact I dinnae think I’ve ever seen him looking so well.”
“Aye” replied Jimmy, “that’ll be because he hasnae had a drink for a couple of days.”
That seemed to have broken the ice because not long afterwards they were ‘all awa with the fairies’.
Anyway Dougie and his son Roger and daughter Patricia are flying back with Lydia for a service in Inverness Friday week. My best wishes go with them.

Scots woman mugged in Bangkok woman loses her fight for life

Published

on September 7, 2009

. 3 Comments

From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok, September 7 2009

Links:BBC Scotland Scotsman The Scottish SUN

Murder hunts as Scots woman loses fight for life in Bangkok

From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok

An Inverness woman who was mugged in Thailand a week ago last Saturday has lost her fight for life in a Bangkok hospital.

Lydia Riach, 58, was pronounced dead at the police hospital in Bangkok at 11.44 last night (Sunday) her cremation will be held (Tuesday in a Thai temple in Klong Toey, Bangkok.

Her husband Douglas Riach, 57, a former director of Caledonian-Thistle Football Club said today: “She passed away peacefully. I will be returning home with her ashes on Friday.

“It has been a gruelling week and now the inevitable has happened. In a way it comes as a relief and a blessing.”

Her death means that Thai police are now involved in a murder hunt. No suspects have been arrested but spokesman for Thai Police at Thonglor said last night: “We have a witness and leads. We will apprehend the killers.”

Douglas Riach added: “Please let me take this opportunity to thank all those who have given their support. It has been tremendous and has helped the family through these trying times.

“It has really helped us get through these last few days. The Embassy have also been very good and helped us through the business of sorting out cremation arrangements and organising a ticket so I can get home quickly now.

“I am returning with Lydia on Friday so we can be among relatives and lifelong friends.”

Lydia Riach was attacked by a motorcycle snatch team who grabbed her hand-bag as she walked in single file behind her husband in a narrow lane of the city’s Sukhumvit Road.

Lydia, who was wearing her bag around her head and shoulders was dragged to the ground and her skull was split on the roadway.

The couple, were on their way to watch Saturday football at the Scottish owned Twenty Two bar owned by Ray McLaughlin, from Paisley.

Expatriates at the bar shocked at the attack have been giving to a fund to help pay for hospital costs.

Said Mr.McLaughlin: “It’s such a sad thing to happen to a very lovely and obviously happy couple. Everbody wants to help out. It has angered many people to see this sort of thing happen in Bangkok.

“When I came here 15 years ago this sort of thing would have been unheard of.”

Douglas, is an Honorary Life President of the Highland Car Club, and former rally driver. The couple were popular both in Inverness and Bangkok where they had started a new life.

He said: “This has not changed my view of Thailand and Thai people who have been very kind to us both. It could happen in other cities. Wrong place wrong time. Nothing more than that.”

Douglas arrived two years ago and got employment as a sales consultant with Infinity, a financial consultancy.

Lydia was due to start work in an orphanage helping under privileged children.

Picture Special: Royal Marines in stand-off with Thai mafia

Published

on September 7, 2009

Big Trouble in Tourist Thailand

. 47 Comments

Picture special:
by Andrew Drummond, Bangkok

Pictures: Andy Chant/Gavin Hill/Vera Productions

Royal Marine Face-off

(pops rewrite)
Royal Marines fresh from a tour of duty fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan have been involved in armed stand-off with the mafia thugs on the Thai holiday island of Phuket.
The marine ‘section’, on exercise in South East Asia on ‘Operation Taurus’, faced down a mafia gun-man as they fought the same cause of hundreds of tourists who have been swindled at the top British holiday destination.

I gotta get me a gun

The only reason blood was not spilled was because a Marine Police Sergeant stepped in to avoid a major international incident as the marines faced off with armed and tattooed Mafiosi who had been beating up tourists and ripping them off for thousands of pounds.
Trouble began after HMS Bulwark made a port call in Phuket two months ago with the Marines who had just completed a tour of duty in Helmand Province.
Within hours Shore Patrol policeman Matt Turner from Sheffield was reporting. “It’s mayhem. Our lads, and hundreds of westerners are being fleeced and we believe it’s all by organised gangs. Jet skis, taxis, everything.
He added: “We have to help. We will do it whether its Marines or tourists being ripped off. We do not differentiate.”
The boisterous Marines were officially warned by their officers not to hire jet skis on the beaches of the holiday island as this was the most expensive rip-off of all. Thailand has been hard hit by a tourist recession.
But confident they could handle the situation, many ignored the ruling.

Marine Jack Tebbott

Not long afterwards Marine 21-yr-old Jack Tebbott from Leicester found himself staring down the barrel of a gun after being taken to a builders and boating yard in the back of beyond, after allegedly damaging a jet-ski he had hired. The mafia were demanding 60,000 Thai baht £1,400 in damages and loss of earnings.
Several tourists have already been beaten up for refusing to surrender to the mafia demands.
Surrounded by the stripped to the waist thugs and held at the point of a rifle Tebbot had managed to get an sms message to his mates who arrived at the yard near Patong Beach on Phuket in ‘section force’.
Bloodshed was only avoided when Marine Police Sergeant and Detatchment Commander Tim Wright arrived on the scene and told Tebbot: “Ok lad we told you not to hire jet skis. We know it’s a con but I’m afraid you’re now going to have to pay some money to get out of this.”

No nonsense Marine Sgt Tim Wright

Then after examining the jetski the no nonsense Sergeant, who had already had to deal with other cases, turned on the mafia chief called JJ and said: “You’re a crook! You’re corrupt. The damage is old. The fibre glass has already turned brown. How come all your jet-skis have a problem?”
Then he turned to Marine Tebbot and said: “Ok boy. You go now!”
JJ then ordered his thugs to block Tebbot’s exit but JJ perhaps sensing he had a fight on his hands continued negotiating. The price eventually dropped by almost a half to 35,000 baht to (£627) but not before some other heated exchanges.
“I’m just a f…cking businessmen. F..ck. You. How are we to feed our families,” said JJ pointing to his fellow thugs lounging around and waiting for their next sucker.
: ‘F..k you. You are not my father. You are not my pa.
Sgt:“Don’t shout at me. You’re crook. You’re a worm. You’re doing this day after day.

Marine policeman Mat Turner

JJ:F.. ck you!
Sgt: F.ck you!’.
The standoff ended when Marine Tebbot agreed to foot the bill. “Ok,” said Sergeant Wright,” you better toddle of to the ATM then.
The Marines conceded afterwards that it was £627 too much but worth it to avoid an international incident.
Said Sergeant Wright: “They are trained to be cool. But had it come to the crunch we could have easily fought them and got all our lads out of there. But there would have been some claret spilt on both sides.”

Face off Royal Marine Police Sergeant Wright and JJ

The stand-off did however have a happy ending. After complaints from the British and other Embassies in Phuket the island’s police chief has ordered a crackdown on the thugs, on the orders of Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister, admitting that some policemen had also been pocketing cash with the local mafia.
Police Commander Pigad Thantiphong , who admitted that the Royal Navy had also made a complaint through the Embassy said: “Anyone who threatens tourists from now on will be prosecuted. Any policeman who assists the mafia will be punished, and independent experts will be brought in to adjudicate in any case.”

But how do we feed our families?

Amazingly the Marines standoff was captured on film by producer/director Gavin Hill which can be seen tonight(Monday) 10 pm in ‘Big Trouble in Thailand’ made by comedian Rory Bremner’s Vera Productions for Bravo Channel and filmed with the Thai Tourist Police.

It was like this - you want to teach ME the art of public debating

And despite the incident many marines still thought Phuket was the best place they had taken shore leave in.

The last time Royal Marines had a fight in Phuket

False news at ThaiVisa.com (updated)

Published

on September 5, 2009

. 10 Comments

This was a blog about the activities of a person calling himself a journalist in Bangkok.

After several days now I have removed it and saved it - not for any other reason than that the people who should know about this man do now and that a report from the Malaysian press states medically that he has psychiatric problems.

There is therefore no reason to leave any more indelible marks on the internet other than those which already exist and he should be allowed to get a life.

Thanks you for all your comments and reports of similar experiences

Foreign Tourist Police Volunteers Exposed

Published

on September 4, 2009

Big Trouble in Thailand - Bravo Channel UK

. 25 Comments

howardmillerbv

This is a blog only
(Warning this article comes with a drop-intro)

I have a love-hate relationship with television. Once in a blue moon I do a documentary then almost immediately afterwards, after the initial elation (because I almost always think they are good) I vow never to do another one again, remembering the nightmare making it.
I would say it’s like having a baby, if I knew. (I do know where they come from).

Picture above: Howard Miller/Bravo

What usually infuriates me is the hassles of commissioning editors , executive producers, the politicking, and all the conditions put on filming… as if they want to take ownership just because they are providing the cash. There’s logic there, but I could never quite agree with it.
Then there’s those long shoots and edits and the problem of trying to keep everybody together. Watching the ‘camera director’ trashing the ‘Video or Film Editor’ is not a pretty sight. And again there’s all these phrases used in Covent Garden wine-bars; ’production values’ , ’speaking from a higher level plain’ etc. etc
Currently expats in Thailand are a little bit up in arms about a documentary series going to air in the UK over the next few weeks called ‘Big Trouble in Thailand’ and it’s based on the activities of the British Thai Tourist Police Volunteers and what we commonly know in the British newspaper business as, well, ‘Brits in the shit’. And its taken two years to get off the ground.
“This is going to be more salacious crap’. ‘It’s going to make Thailand look bad’. ‘It’s going to make us all look bad’. ‘Another nail in my coffin. My wife thinks I just come here for a golfing holiday’ These sort of comments are going up on expatriate internet forums.
Does it do all that? Well it certainly makes some people look bad. It certainly makes some tourists, British and others, look profoundly stupid. But as for tourism, my guess is that young Brits having seen the series will be gagging to get here….and they are the film’s demographic! …’Thailand? Dull it isn’t ‘ should be the TAT’s new slogan.
Of course that might sound all a bit like the famous Pattaya short-time bar owner, who after being exposed in a British Sunday newspaper put up a sign saying ‘Still just as sleazy as featured in the News of the World’. Seriously though, one can’t really get indignant at a series which reminds us of just how tourism has developed in Thailand.
Actually the series, which goes out on the ‘Bravo Channel’ in the UK next week, is a first class presentation of many of the different facets of youth tourism in Thailand. And, as it is based on the British members of the Tourist Police Volunteers, we know which side we are going to see. It’s not going to be old grannies asking police for directions to the Temple of the Emerald Buddha.

Gavin Hill undercover in Pattaya

I have to declare a bias. I like the style of Gavin Hill, the producer and we have many joint friends. He has also bought me a beer or two. He is an old Asia hand, having worked for APTV first of all in Indonesia, Al Jezeera, and many US production companies; well just about everywhere.
Actually he has worked for so many people like me he has probably become unemployable, because we probably don’t ever want to be employed any more. But he still wants to chase a good story. He is a class operator. I am amazed at what he got on tape without somebody from somewhere throwing a punch.

Producing a professional video camera in Pattaya’s Walking Street is never a picnic. As cameras pan, rows of male tourists duck, the rest tend to come at you.. often each with a beer bottle in hand.

But that’s maybe because Howard Miller, the Pattaya Group Leader of the foreign police volunteers, and his mates were around for protection. And as for Howard Miller. Here’s a chap I have underrated!

Gruppenfuhrer Howard Miller is a lot more relaxed in Pattaya's walking street in a Home Guard sort of way

I may have referred to him in the past as the ‘Gruppenfuhrer’, mainly because of his jet black uniform which some people say makes them all look like Nazi storm-troopers.
There’s no better or worse libel than calling someone a Nazi. I have been sued before for calling a Polish Resistance fighter a Nazi.

( I named and photographed the right guy. There was just a Polish guy with a very similar name nearby. The newspaper paid out £500 with a clarification saying something like Stanslwz Jankievizx of 2 Railway Cuttings is a former Polish freedom fighter and is not the same Stanslwz Jankievizk the sadistic former Nazi concentration camp guard who lives down the road at 2 Junction Lane)

Anyway Howard comes across, and I am sure it is genuine, as a rather likeable, albeit sensitive, chap who is just doing his bit and more than happy to go out of his way to help those with problems no matter how thankless the task is. He gets an awful lot of internet slagging from expatriates for taking up his Tourist Police assistant role, perhaps because the police in Thailand are not associated with old British values like ‘fair play’.

I was only left puzzling. Why do it? Why bother? I still remain justifiably cynical of some of these volunteers but not those shown on the progamme. I guess Gavin Hill sniffed em out!

Anyway being a little cynical I am convinced that more than a few middle-aged ex-pats in Thailand came to settle after seeing the first amateurish attempts of these fly-on-the-wall shows years ago in their homelands which featured bars with names like ‘The Gobble and Go’ and ‘Cockwell Inn’, before police started polishing up on their slang English.

What is amazing is that nobody ever gets it. The same mistakes happen year in year out. Why do people bother going to ‘Full Moon Parties’ on Koh Phagnan? I gave up 18 years ago! Here in this series we see how rapes, muggings, druggings and of course arrests occur, every time, not forgetting the drownings and occasional murder.
Why don’t tourists do a little research on places they are going to? (I always do) Or do they know and treat Thailand as an adventure holiday? As a parent I might be worried.
And if you get thrown out of a brothel for being drunk, why report it to police? Its amazing how drink begets moral outrage.

Although the programme does pull punches (they are working with the police after all) we can clearly see the monthly police rip offs as they cash in on their monthly ‘Full moon arrests’…Pay the cash or go to jail! A young kid sobs out a month in jail waiting to be fined £20. They can’t film those who agree to play the money game but we hear the prices being demanded. 65,000 Thai baht - £1,666 - for possessing a smidge of cannabis - that’s a lot more than the 2,000 baht (under £40) the motorcycle guy at the end of my lane paid recently for a similar offence!

Its just another version of the well publicised Suvarnabhumi airport scam. (For those unfamiliar with this foreigners arrested on suspicion of shoplifting in the duty free stores were shaken down for as much as £8000 or face up to a year in jail facing trial alone)
We also see an American serviceman high on methamphetamines attacking a senior Thai policeman, and then the camera cuts on police orders, leading one to suspect that this shipmate is just about to learn the more discreet police version of another aspect of Thai street culture when foreigners are drunk or lippy- It involves a lot of loud stomping by a frenzied and rabid mob. I have seen it a few times. You don’t want to.

’There are Pattaya bar girls chasing, now well-outnumbered foreigners down the street shouting ‘You. You. Give me money’; then the drunken Australian being thrown very roughly out of a brothel. ‘They stomped my head in’, he wails then lunges at Howard. Then Howard is seen politely asking his father on the boy’s phone phone to come and collect him, all the while being called a ‘dickhead’ by the son. Gormless foreigners being led by their penises into oblivion.
There are of course lots and lots of drunks actually, and the British seem to score high here, later happily signing their film release forms, I guess as if signing for a medal. There is also titillation as skimpily dressed go-go girls frolic around poles in Pattaya bars. Well that is how it is, so don’t whinge about it to me.
This is not a film series about fancy spas and lush jungle resorts and so called Hi-So launch parties with twee people. One can get that sort of fur coat and no knickers production on ‘Destination zzzz Thailand zzzzzz’. But this is still the real stuff that even high rolling tourists must find difficult to avoid.

Tooled up apparently - The film crew with armed escort - armed against resident expats

Gavin Hill and his team secured excellent co-operation from the Thai authorities and I mean truly excellent and unprecedented access.

They got into seven jails and spoke to young Brits about how they were coping, quite pragmatically actually as it turns out, with their predicament.

They also got help from Britain’s Honorary Consuls, those chaps who don’t get UK salaries for helping helping out, and who thankfully are far removed from Whitehall, ‘elf and safety’, and the ‘What we cannot do for you rule book’. They include Dave Covey on Koh Samui, and I suspect to come Barry Kenyon MBE in Pattaya.
And of course they got help from Thai police, although they were seemingly treated with deep suspicion on Koh Samui and Koh Phangan (island folk you know. I go to these places cautiously).

“ I think they took the view, why not? People coming to Thailand should know that if they behave badly or commit crimes the punishments will be severe. They should see the jails, and the police station lock-ups, and how they behave” said Gavin.

I am probably a little jealous of the excellent results but then again I could not have done it. I fear my face is linked to too much trouble already! I do not need some guy from the Blind Beggar saying to his mates ‘Ere. That’s the geezer what turned over Phil the Till” last year.”

This series also shows what police have to put up with, night after night, for their, sometimes ill-gotten, rewards. All in all Thai police come out okay. There are some good eggs.
Britain’s only saving grace, outwith the volunteers, in the first part of this eight programme series, comes from the Royal Marines who arrive at Phuket on HMS Bulwark.

HMS Bulwark

As the sailors disembark for shore leave they are advised not to hire jet-skis on Patong Beach. But at this stage they are advised only. US military are banned from hiring them.
We cut to a scene where a young Marine is banged up in some sort of builders-yard-come-boat-warehouse in the back of beyond. He faces a gun. It’s either pay up or face the consequences. The Thai jet-ski operator is demanding 44,000 baht (£798) for damage to his boat. Its a scam and a nasty one.
The Thai boss ‘JJ’ makes it known on camera that he will resort to violence and has done in the past.
Around the scene are heavily tattooed Thais stripped to the waist.
More Marines arrive. Then along comes the ship’s Military Police Sergeant Major.
JJ insists on his cash, raising his voice as his 1% of integrity slips to Norway’s initial average scores in the European Song Contest, but that’s a little difficult to maintain anyway in his tacky lair.

‘I’m a f..cking businessman!’
‘Don’t you shout at me! You’re corrupt. You’re a f…cking crook. This damage is old damage. It’s turned brown already!’ shouts the Sergeant Major at JJ, ‘How come this happens every single day here!”

The Royal Marines must miss the water quickly. Lots of them have been hiring jet-skis apparently.

I wanted to shout a few more expletives at the little worm on the screen myself.
‘

‘Go now!’ The Sergeant orders the poor unfortunate captive Marine to leave the scene. JJ then orders his neanderthal buddies to close in.
There’s a stand off. The Marines are ready to fight their side. It’s clear there are links between the local mafia and local police. But at the end of the day the Marines know they cannot start an incident.

Eventually the Navy agree to pay a lesser amount, but only because the young Royal Marine had been bullied into agreeing to it verbally earlier. Series producer Gavin Hill was of course in the middle of this stand-off which would have cost a fortune to reconstruct with actors, and this was the real menacing truth.
The Royal Marines had just come from Helmand Province. I admired their patience. ( But I guess or rather I know they let some steam off in Soi Bangla where the military police were trying to save ‘Our boys’ from drooling ladyboys).

The Sergeant Major’s contempt was palpable, just as if he had just gobbled down a a couple of those ‘Brussels Sprouts’ which the ship’s HMS Bulwark’s Captain has apparently put down as ‘an enemy of the state’ and banned from his quarters.
I almost started singing ‘Rule Brittania’. A pyrrhic victory for the Thai thug accompanied by a trashing, sadly, for Thai tourism.
Coincidentally this week the Governor of Phuket has stepped into the local jet-ski rip-offs row.
Punters are paying up to £50 for half an hour on these machines, then ripped off for up to £1000 for alleged damage, which includes loss of alleged earnings while the jet-ski is being repaired.
The first programme in the series ‘Big Trouble in Thailand’, Vera Productions for the Bravo Channel, goes to air on Monday. Better than a lot, and I mean a lot, on the mainstream channels, it’s as good an introduction to the non glossy side of tourism in Thailand that you’ll ever get,…. but the beaches and the ‘craic’ still look great. I would want to go and have a look. Its a voyeurs paradise if nothing else.

The only thing annoying to me was the way this was dressed up with bells and whistles, which everybody seems to do today to grab the viewers attention. Britain has long since been going the American way to keep the audience’s atttention span. (At Fox TV a sound grab was about five seconds max after which their American viewers apparently fall asleep, or go out for a Bud!)

I can live with this popular style, with the way several stories are interwoven, with a little bit of repetition, as if we have already forgotten, as in “remember Howard’ who is waiting for forensice reports on the drugs he has found (repeat sequence)..well now back to”…. After all I remind myself writing for the tabloids is harder than writing for the ‘unpopulars’ and of course the programme makers are going to the widest possible audience.

Overall I could not get enough of this and pray the series has not all been frontloaded.

Journalistically this series is a great coup because, even though its brief was not an investigative one, it only takes a bit of sense to see a what is revealed a little beyond the screen. You may not get the nuances if you still intend to hire a jet-ski in Phuket.

Special medication ceased for Scots woman mugged in Bangkok

Published

on September 4, 2009

Scot attacked in Bangkok will be allowed to die - The Scotsman

. 11 Comments

From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok, September 3 2009

Other publications from same author: Scottish Television video:drummond/chant/hill

I have to watch mugged wife die - The SUN

No hope for Thai mugging victim - BBC Scotland

Inverness Courier

Pictures: Andrew Chant (later)

Doctors in Bangkok have ceased to provide special medication for a 58-yr-old Scots woman who suffered severe head injuries when she was mugged in a Bangkok street at on her 30th wedding anniversary at the weekend.
But they have refused to switch off life support systems for Lydia Riach from Inverness as it is against Thai law and the family’s wishes.
Now children’s charity worker Lydia from Inverness will be left to die naturally at the Police Hospital in Bangkok where she was admitted last Saturday. The possibilities of a recovery remain slim.

Douglas Riach and son Roger at Bangkok Police Hospital

Husband Douglas Riach, 57, a former director of Inverness Caledonian Thistle football club said: “I have received confirmation that Lydia no longer has brain stem function. The law denies the choice in terminating life support.
“She has been moved out of the Intensive Care Unit to a ward where life will continue, but medication will be capped. We anticipate a matter of days only, which is a blessing as she is gone already.”
The news was broken as the Lydia’s son Roger, 34, an operations manager for Securitas in Glasgow, daughter Patricia 37, and their uncle Eddie Riach,flew into the Thai capital to be with her.
“They have arrived together and the family will be together for Lydia’s last hours,” aded Mr. Riach known to hisa friends as Dougie.
Son Roger said: “It is a godsend that we have been able to get here in time to see our mother. We would never order her life support to be shut off. She will go in her own good time. But the prospects do not look good. There has been no improvement in her condition.”
The mugging of Lydia in Bangkok’s Sukhumvit Soi 22 has angered many expatriates who say they are beginning to fear for safety in the streets of Bangkok.
Regulars from the ”Twenty Two ‘bar, where ‘Dougie’ and Lydia used to go to watch Celtic matches, earlier in the week called on the police station at Thonglor in Bangkok to demand action over the attack.
Bar owner Ray McLaughlin, from Glasgow said: “They were very concerned that the police wake up to the seriousness of this crime.”
A spokesman for Thonglor Police however said that a witness had now come forward and they would be issuing pictures of the suspects tomorrow (Friday). “We are aware that if she dies this will become a murder investigation. However we have new information and are confident of making an arrest.”
But Douglas Riach said: “If there is one thing I want to get across is that I do not blame Thailand or the Thais for this. It could happen in many places. The Thai people have been very kind and wonderful hosts to both Lydia and myself.

The spot where Lydia Riach was dragged to the ground

“Lydia’s treatment in hospital has been caring and excellent. I do not find Bangkok a dangerous place, in fact it is safer than most, so I would not want people to say they are not coming to Thailand because of this event.
“She is a great woman. My best friend. My soulmate. It has been a privilege to have been her husband for 30 years.”
Lydia received her head injuries when she was dragged along a round by motor-cycle snatch these who grabbed her handbag, which was around her shoulder and neck, as they drove past. Her head smashed into the road.
Added Roger: “Our mum was everybody’s friend and a very cheerful person. She loved her new life in Bangkok . She was forever sending us cheerful emails.”
Mr. and Mrs Riach have been a popular couple in the expatriate community of the Thai capital. Douglas Riach first arrived in Bangkok two years ago and secured work as a sales consultant for Infinity, a financial consultancy, before Lydia flew out to join him. Mrs Riach was due to start work helping children at a Bangkok orphanage before the attack.

Highland gentleman at bedside vigil after wife attacked in Bangkok

Published

on September 1, 2009