BANGKOK, AUGUST 30 2010

An American internet porn king who brought to the world such websites as ‘ThaiSluts’ and ‘Thailadyf*cking’ and ‘Asian Perverts’ has won approval from the Thai government to get tax concessions for his  new internet business in Pattaya.
After first having his business blessed by Buddhist monks and opened by the Mayor of Pattaya Ittiphol Khunpluemm, Michael Strouse, 42, from Minneapolis, has now been granted tax concessions by Thailand’s Board of Investment.
Ironically Michael Strouse is also known in the US porn industry as ‘The Mayor’.  But the only city he has been Mayor of is Porncity.net. He was also the boss of such sites as ‘Mayorsmoney’ and Geektech – sites specifically set up to cash in on porn and linked to hundreds of internet sex sites.
At its peak he boasted ‘Porncity’ was getting up to 10 million hits a day worldwide and it was fast making him a millionaire.
His young Thai wife even became an internet porn star and can still be seen today on her website purring: ‘I will do anything for you….anything.”
When I contacted Michael Strouse he denied having anything to do with the porn industry and said that was all in the past and he was glad to be rid of it.  “But it was all legal”.

Final Wave blessed by monks

He said it was unfortunate that a former member of staff had been spreading malicious rumours about him and that he was taking out a prosecution in Pattaya.
I had in fact not been contacted by a former member of staff, but instead  two weeks ago by some members amongst his current Thai staff at the offices of Final Wave in Pattaya. who no doubt would face instant dismissal if  identified.
“ There are very bad pictures of Thai lady, Thai man. Thai staff are not told what their work is used for. This has made us very angry. Please do not go to Pattaya Police. They will do nothing. Go to the BOI or government.”  That essentially  is a summary of the second message I received and it added that Thai staff were working on mySql and php programming.

Brave Thai staff

So what is his company ‘Final Wave Consulting Ltd.’ doing or making that it should find such favour with the Thai government? They just told the BOI they are making software.
Well the ‘Pattaya Times’ were told: “The parent company, Final Wave, is mainly involved in exporting all kinds of motor tires to America. However due to the revolutionizing nature of modern technology, the company has decided to offer solutions to meet this change. As such, they have founded a standard consulting company to offer mobile advice via the internet and sell a product that offers a virtual private network (VPN) to users for added internet security.

“Michael Strouse said Final Wave Consulting Co., Ltd. would donate 50% of its profits each month to local underprivileged children through the Optimist International Club of Thailand”.

Strouse setting Pattaya alight?

Actually there is no parent company of Final Wave Consulting and therefore no tyres going to America, something Strouse has now conceded.
Meanwhile the Pattaya People reported on video: ‘The new company is located on Pratamnak Soi 3, and their products include ProXPN’

Both reports were glowing.

Excellence and Integrity + community service

And this is how Strouse describes his company and there is a similar entry in the membership book of the American Chamber of Commerce.
“Final Wave was founded with one purpose. Excellence and integrity above all else. We provide our staff a high level of compensation in the local market including benefits packages that rival western companies. We have selected an elite team of specialists from all over the globe as well as here in Thailand to lead a young and highly skilled group of Thai employees. We believe in building client loyalty by building staff loyalty.

“In addition to providing a state of the art workplace utilizing the latest technology paired with creature comforts such as free food, free coffee, employee reward programs and incentives, we also encourage staff to take paid time off to do community service.

“Currently Final Wave is sponsoring two under privileged children through school and are working with local charity groups to properly spend a large portion of our profits on improving lives of local underprivileged children through long term education and public awareness”

So far we have  glowing newspaper and television reports, integrity, excellence, and 50 % of profits going to charity. Is this all too good to be true?  When I asked a member of staff if he had done community service he replied: “What’s that?” 

Strouse is dedicated to his charity work.  The question is, has the leopard really changed its spots? Or has smooth talking Michael Strouse now merely re-invented himself in Thailand? - a common enough trait among foreigners in Pattaya? After all, Strouse seems to have misplaced reasons for being here in the first place.

In 2005 in an interview with ‘Ambush’ – a ‘Who’s Who of who is behind the scenes in adult online’ Michael Strouse was asked:
“How did you enjoy your mini retirement? What made you come out of it?”

‘How cool cheap Thai woman and strong American dollars are?’

He answered: “Which one? The one where I went to FL (Florida) and left my brother running the biz or the one where I went to Thailand and found out how cool cheap women and strong American dollars are.” 

 The dollar has since dropped of course. But to put things in perpsective Strouse did say later he also liked Thailand for its culture.

Why do you like Thailand so much? Is it the cheap young hookers?

Answer: “Yep that pretty much sums it up Well that, and the fact that everything seems so cheap it’s almost free and the food is amazing, the culture is extremely interesting and there is about 1000 years more history and culture than home Also met my wife there, love diving there and just hangin out! Wanna see a pic of the wife ?”

Wanna see a picture of the wife? Strouse's porn star wife 'Kat Young' still 19 and getting younger

That interview was in 2005 when he was perhaps a younger brasher man, so of course he could have changed his attitude completely since then.

F****D- UP BEYOND ALL RECOGNITION!

Devil in Disguide - adult webmaster on his hols in Phuket

But in 2007 his name come up again this time as the sponsor of a ‘Gathering’ for adult webmasters in Patong Beach, Phuket,  through his company Mayorsmoney. Click and you get the drift.
Mayorsmoney.com provided the welcome packs for the arriving webmasters, and webmistresses, who were also promised that Thai porn star Kat Young would be on hand to provide massages.
In any event Kat Young did not provide massages, recalled Strouse,  as she was on his arm as his wife. They were married for five years he said, and in all that time, she never gave him a massage. They have since divorced and Strouse had taken on a younger Thai wife and he now has a son as the Pattaya Times reports here.
“Kat is now an American citizen,” he said, and five years on apparently still claiming she is 19 on her her site  and pursuing the career he launched her into.
Meanwhile Adult Webmasters went on safari in Phuket, dined at the resorts top restaurants, Baan Rim Paa, Da Maurizio and Strouse apparently led the invasion of Soi Bangla, Patpong, the town’s street of beer bars, a-go-gos, and lady boy bars.
The whole event was reported in hundreds of pictures currently on the web on the site of FUBAR, which is where Adult Webmasters report their fun events. Kat Young however did not seem to feature.

Mayorsmoney 'Oh shit kit' for visiting adult webmasters.

FUBAR incidentally stands for ‘F*cked Up Beyond All Recognition’. The last pictures show Strouse and colleagues returning home in a tuk tuk.
Anyway Michael Strouse can hardly be singled out for taking part, if indeed he did,  in an industry which the Thai government turns a blind eye to and something which is a weekly or daily activity for perhaps thousands of tourists and expats.  It’s the recurring adult webmaster bit that should be of concern to them.

Are they still going to see things like this on his websites?

 “Feel the oriental passion together with these really sexy and absolutely smutty asian babes – watch these narrow eyed beauties gag!”

Just another day

The server administrator is webmaster@sotprod.com.  Staff at Final Wave confirmed sotprod is one of their domains.

When I questioned Mr. Strouse about this he said: “Well yes. I still have those sites. But I have kept Porncity because the man who bought them off me has not paid the money yet. I have definitely sold off mayorsmoney.”

Within minutes of our conversation www.sotprod.com came off the net. But if you google sotprod.com you still get links to Kat Young at only17.com (Is Kat Young truly getting younger?) , juggy girls, and drunksluts.
After speaking with Michael Strouse another anyonymous email came in  from Final Wave. “The foreigners are now all very serious and not talking to us. There is a lot of activity upstairs.”

Heading home

At Final Wave’s offices the Thai staff work on the third floor and are not allowed access to the fourth floor where the foreigners work. Not all Thai staff are kept busy all the time but they are needed to support the application for five to six  foreigners working upstairs.

So has Strouse got out of the sex business?   No, indeed,  he has merely changed some of his products because there is so much free porn on the internet and thus fewer buyers. His method of making money remains pretty the same - internet billing!

But not quite tucked up

Click here for instance (http://cams.websecretcrush.com/) This is supposed to be a dating and chat site and you will find that your chat companions tend to come already without any panties. And they certainly do not come for free.

Girl on websecretcrush

The site claims to make 20,000 successful introductions a month. I cannot see why though. A web report simply states: ‘ Trustworthiness, vendor reliability, privacy and child safety of this site is very poor’.

Chatmakescash is a classic. It works using affiliate websites all over the net. This affiliate program gets affiliates, typically Filipinos, to ‘chat’ online with US people that they find in online chat rooms such as Facebook. This is how it was explained to me.

“That link is to a website (www.mobiledatechannel.com) where the target enters their cell phone number, receives a confirmation PIN code, and enters this code back onto the website to initiate the chat by SMS. The scam is the targets are not told that there is a charge per sms chat text message, between $1 and $2. The company will try and deny this. But look at it logically.

 Of course, if it is free there is no point in marketing it. The product is widely reported to be very sound, if you want a highly secure VPN .

But a poster on a scam website wrote:  “Poking round the newsgroups a bit indicates that “Proxpn” is little more than a scam. Not only do they record your traffic, but they charge you for the privilege of ripping you off. Additionally there are problems with the site’s security certificate. All in all, I’d avoid this like the plague.”   It seems the free version is not good enough to download videos but you don’t hear that till later.
At Final Wave, Pattaya,  the ProVPN operation is run by a Briton called Greg Gaskell and an American Phil McClendon who says at high school he was named as the person who was probably most liable to make an impact on the world . On the last link you can read his sales patter.

Oh No not Schoolgirls R US too!!

Thainee.com. Tiny - get it?

 Greg Gaskell runs MissionDollars.com the money engine driven by, wait for it, Thaigirlswild, Lulusexbomb.com, and Thainee.com -( billed as the smallest Asian porn star.  The picture left is the only clothed one I could find) . You’ll need something like ProVPN to see more though, oh and a credit card.  I think we get the picture here.  A Briton Greg Gaskell of Reedly Drive, Worsley, Manchester, Lancs was also sued in the Irish Courts by Toys R Us and was ordered to hand overthe name of his website ‘Schoolgirlsrus’.
Complaints have also being going up on the net about Gaskell for affiliates who should be sharing in his booty.

‘There’s no business like ho business’

Apparently he was trying to mediate through the website www.gfy.com, which stands for, yes you have probably guessed this by now,  “Go F@%$K Yourself.com” and is ‘where the adult online community meet’.   You can whistle along to their company song if you were born after 1950.

Its ‘There’s no business like ho business’. (Seriously I am not making this up)    

Gaskell by the way was eventually reported to have paid up his debts in full so good for you Greg.
There is of course no suggestion whatsoever that either the Mayor of Pattaya or the Board of Investment know any of the above. And of course I cannot suggest the law is being broken, because if a criminal  offence has been committed, where has it been committed? Its a bit like the Bangkok boiler rooms.
A Board of Investment spokesman however said: “A member of staff has been assigned to look into this matter.”
Finally, who is the ex-employee who is causing all the trouble at Final Wave?  Two foreigners have  left Final Wave in a hurry. One was a woman who was brought in to set up the dating sites including ‘websecretcrush’ who left, she said,  to ‘get a life’.
The second was Simon Luttrell, 41, Final Wave’s Product Manager, whom I finally caught up with before the weekend. He is currently hiding out in a neighbouring country:

He said: “Strouse is a millionaire and I am not happy to deal with a millionaire on his terms in Pattaya.  I left because I had ethical reasons and he lodged a complaint with the police suggesting I have cheated him. Its total nonsense. ”

“If I agree to pay you and drop all charges against you, will you stop going to the press and tell them you were mistaken?” - email Michael Strouse to Simon Luttrell

 
Later he said: “I  have received an email from Strouse saying he will drop all charges and pay me the usual three months severance if I get the press off his back.”  Then later again Strouse called the deal off putting a note up on his website saying he was being blackmailed. (Updated 02/092010 This has now been removed)
Simon Luttrell seems to have a better CV than Strouse. He graduated from University College London in 1986 with a Master’s degree in Microwaves & Modern Optics. He worked as a senior consultant for companies such as Marconi, Alcatel, British Telecom, Cable & Wireless and several others. In 1998, he established Fonedata - an SMS text messaging company which he later sold to Psion plc.

‘Peppered by an expat reporter with a plethora of inflammatory allegations’

The Final Wave website is now flashing with urgent news saying Strouse had been ‘greeted with an email from a local expat reporter who was armed with some facts of the director peppered with a plethora of factually inaccurate and in some cases extremely offensive and inflammatory allegations”. (Updated Sept 2 2010 This has now been deleted)

Well I have to say that is a lot better English than I have been reading on his websites,  but needless to say there are no ill founded allegations in my emails, only questions seeking assurances. In fact even his Chicago lawyer Thoms Wallrich baulked at making such a suggestion.

He did however ask: “that you please disclose to me the nature and provider of information pertaining to Mr. Strouse and his business concerns so that we may determine our next course of action”.

There of course will be no sign of porn at the premises in Pattaya because the Thai staff are employed in writing databases, which can of course be used for anything. The evidence is out there in the ether but the clues are still there.  My information provider is the very place Strouse abuses to make money.  Its all up there on the internet. My sources, who pointed me in the right direction will remain confidential.

ขอขอบคุณสำหรับความกล้าหาญของเพื่อน IT ชาวไทยที่ให้เราได้นำเรื่องนี้มานำเสนอ

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MIKE STROUSE ANSWERS BACK

While I think it is quite funny that Michael Strouse has been given tax breaks by the Thai government and the twilight world of adult webmasters sounds hilarous (well for a short time) Strouse himself understandably  feels he has not been accorded the proper respect as a businessman in Pattaya and has penned a reply below on his personal website (mikestrouse.com) not his company one.  As he has laid on the victim bit terribly thick and portrayed the image of a reporter salivating while writing a story about him I have added my own comments and corrections. (Updated Sept 2 2010 He has now removed this from his private website)

Michael Stouse:

It’s a first for me and quite frankly a little disturbing.

As many of you may know (if you know me or know how to google me) I used to be involved in some adult affiliate programs and early adult hosting. I was part of an industry that poineered social networking, on demand video, e commerce, and affiliate marketing. I learned a great deal which in today’s internet translates to a much more lucrative business in the mainstream internet.  As many of you also know I was lucky enough to get out of the business before the real decline thanks to all the free content online now  Now with my free time I’ve attempted many new ventures. Most of which failed (tire exporting, iphone importing, wii exporting, datings sites, even an anti acne product which I still believe is good i just don’t have the money or time to pursue it)

That’s certainly one way of putting pioneering social networking.  In interviews on the web Mike Strouse has admitted that by far the most income came from not inventing Facebook,  but  ’stiffycash’ and ‘mayors money’ both sites delivering porn. I am not so much concerned about the porn they delivered but how they cashed in.

Onto the blackmail part.

I recently discovered some disturbing accounting anomalies from a former staff member.  This person admitted they performed this act and offered to compensate partially. I declined their offer and took the next logical course of action. We went to the police.

What happened next sounds more like a movie than real life but unfortunately it’s very real. This person contacted me and offered to not speak with the press if i dropped all charges and settled with a severance package. I did not believe any reporter would believe someone with outstanding police investigations or failure to appear for several police summons. Boy was I wrong.

Boy is he wrong as an email at the end shows. This scenario is in any case unlikely as it was not ‘this person’ who contacted me but Thai staff at Final Wave Consulting Co. Ltd in Pattaya on August 15th long before I found this ‘former staff’ member.  Because Michael Strouse has gone to the police does not mean there is any truth in his allegations. It could make a movie I guess though.

I get a call from 2 reporters. One was very nice and upon hearing that the source was wanted for questioning in connection with theft he understood that he was looking at being used as a tool in an extortion plot and gave some solid advice (thanks Drew Noyes) The other reporter on the other hand so excited by the prospect of a porn guy now operating a tech company in Thailand believed there must be a good story to run. I being rather naive about such things agreed to answer some questions in email. What I was presented with was beyond shocking. I was asked about my former wife and if she was used as a “feature” attraction providing massages at a porno show. (completely false) I was accused of lying and that I was never married. I, in fact, was married and my ex wife continues to live in America as an American citizen.

I have never ever called Michael Strouse. My calls to his office went unanswered. I contacted him by email. Drew Noyes is not a reporter. He is an American business friend of Michael Strouse who happens to own the Pattaya Times.

I called Drew Noyes to try and get a number for Strouse because the phone at his company Final Wave was ringing out and  because I knew they were friends. Drew Noyes emphatically denies, nor does he believe, he was being used as part of a ‘blackmail plot’.

I asked Strouse in an email if he attended an Adult Membership Gathering in Phuket where Kat Young, a Thai porn star was advertised (on the net) as being on hand to give massages. I did not know Kat Young was his wife as my emails clearly show.  Why would I accuse him of lying about being married to her?  He is totally making the bit up about the porno show.  But hey! . All conversations about his wife were in emails which of course we both have. I was surprised when he said that Kat Young was his wife. In fact I had to double check in an email to make sure I understood right.   All those emails can be shown to any court Mr. Strouse likes.  More to the point Michael Strouse is doing what I suspect he knows best, being very economical with the truth.

 When I tried to explain to this reporter that our business in Thailand is in fact NOTHING to do with adult production, or sale. Our business is in fact stated clearly on our website and we have real clients (albiet not as many as I would like and were not rolling in money) I even went on to list Thai government officials that have and continue to regularly inspect our operations as part of our compliance with local immigration law, BOI status and in some cases we do work for local government offices.

Mr. Strouse explained what I already knew that he had BOI approval and had an in to the Mayor of Pattaya. He never listed Thai government officials, though he is welcome to.  His website only went up last week and is sufficiently vague. His original one page website describes his company as an incubator and investor

It states: “Final Wave does not publicly list any of the companies we’re involved with because we do not wish to be a unifying brand across a diverse portfolio of otherwise unrelated products and services. We are strictly a behind the scenes operation”.  This of course attracted my interest.

  He said he didn’t believe that I was telling the truth and that there is no way we could be making money. When he inquired about our SMS clients and our VPN clients he said “there is no way they are making money with that, it’s a “front”. He offered to send me his “proof” and I offered several times for him to come down to the office and see for himself. He has not sent the proof or accepted my offer of an open door inspection and free access to any and all staff.

I never offered to send any proof. I told him it was not necessary to go to his office as his Thai staff said there was little I would find (unless he gave me free access to his computers) He certainly never offered free access to all his staff. I did not use the word ‘front’ in any correspondence or conversation with him.  Its a nice word though. The only calls were from him to me. I told him I did not believe he was making the real money from ProVpn. He can talk all he wants about his SMS business. But his SMS expert and Product Manager has left his company.

Some other wonderfully ignorant things he said: Isn’t dating sites and affiliate software the same as porn? Isn’t it all just a scam? Who on earth would pay for SMS? I don’t know where to begin with this. I am sitting here trying to disprove a negative, educate someone on how information technology, affiliate marketing, mobile and e-commerce works all the while he’s thinking “porn” and insulting my wife.

As I recorded the conversation this is somehat simplified. I asked Strouse wasn’t he doing exactly what he was doing before? He answered ‘Yes and No’.  The stuff on his porn sites was similar to ,  I put to him for instance, what he was doing with the site ‘websecretcrush’.  As in all his emails he was evasive. ‘Is that one of mine?’ he said.

Considering he had brought someone over from the United States to set up his dating sites, or rather sex chat sites,  why has he had such a memory loss?

I asked him who would pay for sms chat! ($1-2)?  I do not deny that he is an expert on getting cash on the net. The point is what about the people who are losing cash and complaining.  I have not insulted either his ex wife or his new younger Thai wife.  Its not in my nature.

I have contacted my lawyers in America regarding every aspect of this and they (as all lawyers do) want to sue etc … I don’t agree with that. Not because it’s I am in the wrong but I still hold hope that reason will prevail. I am continuing to pursue the criminal case against the former employee and will also be pursuing a criminal case regarding the black mail.

Strouse’s lawyer in the US or anywhere is welcome to sue. I will certainly be supporting ‘the former employee’ if he is accused of blackmail.

All in all it’s kept me up at night. I think of how my past, a perfectly legal, albeit titillating, business can somehow be be used to smear my current company and result in the loss of work, clients and in the end 45 staff who rely on our success as a company to get a paycheck. Not to mention the countless charity ventures we actively support as part of our normal operations as a responsible part of the community.

I love these comments. This has got it all, my poor Thai staff, my charity work.

This is not at all a slur on his Thai staff who alerted me to their worries in the first place. It is good that he gives to charities. He should think of it as earning brownie points for the next life not as proof that he is a man of virtue in this one.

I am awaiting the approval of my local lawyers to publsih a detailed account of the threats and charges against this former staff member and I hope that any media who was contacted by them or someone posing as a current staff member might consider the source.

I take it he will not be suing any Thai members of staff. If Mr.Strouse wishes to publish anything it should be about me not his ‘former staff member’.  He is not the catalyst and I can defend myself.

Any comments of support are greatly appreciated.

Mike Strouse

And finally of course the story above was put together in the full knowledge that Mr. Strouse might sue and facts were checked and re-checked. Material which would have raised the profile of this story considerably was witheld.

And just a reminder. This is the full text of an email sent from Mr. Strouse to his ‘former employee’

“I have just gotten back to town. I’ve given it some thought and as I am sure you’re aware I am being hounded by reporters now claiming all kinds of insane shit. If I agree to pay you and drop all charges against you, will you stop going to the press and tell them you were mistaken? “

Now is this a letter to a blackmailer? From what I gather no cash has ever been demanded from Strouse except the statutory three months salary for people who have been employed over a year.

This is a blog only

John Martin Scripps passport photo

Well you can always trust Singapore to give their city a plug in the programme title even when they are telling a story about a serial killer. 
Currently showing on the Crime and Investigation network is the programme ‘Garden City Butcher’ in which I had a small hand before the final edit in Singapore.
It’s about British serial killer John Martin Scripps, whom I tagged the ‘Tourist from Hell’ who went around the world killing tourists and then chopping their bodies up.  He killed a Canadian mum and son in Phuket and was finally apprehended in Singapore, where he killed a South African businessman.
He confessed the final murder to me in jail which really got the goat of the Singaporean authorities at the time, but they are cool now. Subsequently I was paid to follow in his trail around the world.
I have not seen the final cut of the programme but I am told it’s done very American style, which means you get a recap of the story after every commercial break which is a real pain for some of us who know what the story is, and have some basic memory retention.
Anyway you can read about John Martin Scripps and myself here and if you want more just google his name.
And if anyone at C & I in Singapore is reading this – please send me a copy. You can see me here in their video promo, but of course I do not usually look like that.  I did the interview after a night out with the C & I executive producer at Boat Quay.

Scripps elephant trekking

Bangkok, Saturday August 21 2010

Link to Fugitive Scot wanted over horrific sex attacks is tracked to Bangkok - Daily Record (Sunday Mail)

Rape face fugitive in Thailand - Daily Mirror (Sunday Mirror)

North’s most wanted found in Bangkok bar (Sunday Sun)

George Hoolahan waiting for his business meeting at the Victoria Bar

This is George Hoolahan. He has been on the run for over 11 years on two charges of rape but today I can reveal that far from living in fear of the law he has been living it up in the fleshpots of Thailand.
The 60-yr-old from Govan, Glasgow, had been charged with drugging and raping two eighteen year old girls in the north eastern resort of Whitley Bay, North Tyneside.
But he fled bail in July 1999 and never turned up for his committal for trial at Tyneside Magistrates Courts.
For over ten years he has been on Northumbrian Police’s ‘Most Wanted’ list and several publicity drives have been fruitless.
But I caught up with Hoolahan in a Bangkok ‘beer bar’ after offering to employ him as a ‘consultant’ in his new chosen career fitting out expensive penthouses for Bangkok’s elite.

Hoolahan top centre featuring in Northumbria Police's 'Operation Turn up'

His full name is George Bernard Murray Hoolahan and Northumbria police failed to catch him in one exercise called ‘Operation Turn Up’ , though hundreds of  other wanted men were either arrested or gave themselves in.
After ‘Operation Turn Up’ Northumbria’s Chief Constable said in October 26th: “Absconders who are still out there should know that any effort to get away simply delays the inevitability of going to court.” Hoolahan was the second in the top five.
Nor did Hoolahan turn up when Northumbrian Police issued another appeal in 2008 with Hoolahan now topping a list of 833 accused of committing crimes who had absconded on bail.
And indeed why should he?  Hoolahan merely stopped using his surname,  calling himself either George Murray, or George Bernard to potential clients, while at night he cruised the sex bars of Bangkok’s Soi Cowboy. He apparently funded his trip with the proceeds of a fraud in Glasgow where there is also a warrant for his arrest.
He had just fled owing rent on his apartment at No 4 Sukhsan Mansion (Happy Mansion) in Sukhumvit’s Soi 23, Bangkok, the same street as Soi Cowboy in on, when we called on him.
We lured him to a meeting on the promise of lucrative work renovating a million dollar condominium in Bangkok’s upmarket central Sukhumvit area by contacting him through his email.
After arranging to meet him at the Victoria bar off Bangkok’s Sukhumvit Road Hoolahan turned up freshly showered and wearing white trousers and a pink polo shirt bearing a machine gun logo with the motif MP5 Navy equipment of the Seal 52.
But we told him the deal was off after the news of the manhunt for him had been leaked to Bangkok and the developer had heard. When we asked him if he was wanted by police in Newcastle he replied: “Aye. But that’s all cleared up now. It was only a date rape kind of thing.”
A spokesman for Northumbria Police said: “I can confirm that the named individual has an outstanding warrant against him. Any information on his location should be given to police at the earliest opportunity”.

Details have been sent to Northumbria Police and according to Thai Immigration Police Hoolahan has outstayed his visa - and his welcome.

Watching his back and running but perhaps nowhere to hide now

Link to Daily Mail showbiz

Luang Prabang

Hollywood star Jude Law and his lover Sienna Williams posed as backpackers in remote communist Northern Laos and pledged their love for each other in a ceremony conducted here by a village shaman.
In a picture-book journey which ended north of Luang Prabang, the ancient Royal capital of this landlocked country and a city noted for its golden temples, the re-united couple sat arms round each other watching the clear night sky by the Mekong river, before taking part in a traditional ‘baci’ ceremony.
Travelling as backpackers, with a little luxury thrown in, they rode elephants through waterfalls, visited remote hill tribes, and  toured the streets of the tiny city on bicycles before committing themselves to each other Laos style.

Jude showing his 'baci' string bracelet

In fact although the couple have said they will wed in England soon, followed by a follow up celebration in New York, under the eyes of those who witnessed the ceremony in a hill side village north of here, they are already married.
The couple arrived as normal tourists on one of the short take off and landing ATR 72 turbo prop planes which service the city’s remote airstrip from Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand, Bangkok, and the Laos capital Vientiane.
For two nights they stayed at the plush US$1400 dollar a night Amantaka Hotel, but from  the hotel they borrowed bicycles and acted just like tourists when they went touring.
Said manager Gary Tyson: “They behaved just like the other backpackers who pass through here. They took bicycles out in the day time and went to the local markets and restaurants and from what I understand they were not bothered by anyone and were hardly noticed.”
As a UNESCO heritage site Luang Prabang attracts thousands of tourists,  but the city is quiet with an 11.30 pm curfew created by the Communist government to discourage some of the louder travelers and thus ensure its Heritage status. The city’s two small dance halls close at the same time.
For two nights the two were tucked up in their villa with private pool long before midnight.
But the couple were spotted shopping at the city’s night market, where Jude bought a Laos T-shirt he was later photographed wearing in Los Angeles.
One tourist called Paul travelling with his friend Henry said: “I saw this really beautiful blonde girl pushing a bicycle towards me looking stunning in a short red dress. I think she looks familiar? But then when Jude Law  passed me just after her the penny dropped”
He said he followed to get a second look and Law spotted him. He said ‘Just Checking’ and Law smirked.
And at the city’s ‘Tamarind’ Laos restaurant they sampled spicy Laos dips with sticky rice and Mekong River weed.
“Just Wonderful!  Jude and Sienna ‘  was their contribution to the restaurant’s visitors book.
A Luang Prabang Canadian expat said at the city’s populat Pack Luk wine bar said: “They came here and sat out the front with a glass of wine each. Later I saw them sitting down by the river with their arms around each other.”
At the Amantaka Hotel they met Prince Nithakong Somsanith, a cultural and artistic adviser to UNESCO, and himself an expert in  the ‘baci’ ceremony and, as former Buddhist monk and member of the former ruling Royal family,  also authorized to carry out the ceremony.
It was after their meeting with the Prince that the couple decided to head out into the hills and go through the ceremony. But first they rode an elephant together through the picturesque falls at Tat Sae, north of Luang Prabang. Later in pictures taken at ‘The Tonys’ in New York Jude could still be seen wearing the string baci bracelet around his wrist. 
Prince or Ti Ao Nithakong, known simply as Nith describing the ceremony said: “The couples are joined together by their wrists  with red thread and the thread is connected to offerings .  The offerings are, coconut, for purification, bananas, for fertility, an egg, and sticky rice, a symbol of solidarity, sticking together.  The egg is an animist item to call the spirits.

Prince Nithakong Somsanith

“The shaman calls all 32 souls of different parts of the body to come together and harmonize and then reminds the couple of the rules of the marriage.
“The man is the teeth, the woman is the tongue. The man should not bite the tongue. The man should be the first to go to bed while the woman later comes to attend to him. The woman should be the first to get up and descend the stairs.
“During the ceremony the couple kneel together side by side. It is a tradition that the woman also shoves into the man slightly to show she too has power in the family.”
Prince Nithakong’s father was advisor to the last Laos King who disappeared after the Pathet Laos took over the country in 1974. His uncle was the country’s former Prime Minister.  He himself was exiled in Paris for many years.
But the government of the Peoples Democratic Republic of Laos have since opened up the country to visitors and exiles alike.
He added: “The baci ceremony is performed everywhere and was also performed at the Royal Court.
“It usually takes place on the morning of the wedding and is followed by the wedding blessing by monks and feasting and drinking beer and rice alcohol in the evening.  Jude Law and Sienna will already be man and wife in people’s eyes here”.

Northern Lao family prepare for a baci ceremony

“Today couples go to the Communist Party officer to be married and have their ‘baci’ afterwards.
Prince Nithakong wished the couple well in their marriage. Jude Law originally got engaged to Sienna Miller in 2006 but they split after he allegedly had an affair with their nanny.
Law already has three children with his first wife Sadie Frost and a love child with U.S. model Samantha Burke.
Law recently tried to get lawyers to details of their marriage deleted from Sadie Frost’s biography ‘Crazy Days”.
After meeting law she wrote: “I felt a weight pressing on my heart. I tried to cut the weight loose but I could not. It was an unshakeable and unwelcome premonition, like being presented with the apple in the Garden of Eden.  I felt it was my fate to spend the rest of my life with Jude.”

Luang Prabang has for several years been a secret destination for superstars. One of its most famous guests has been Mick Jagger whose photograph hangs in the “Brasserie Elephant’ , who is reported to have visited the tiny city three times.

August 20 2010

A Belfast man was yesterday sentenced to life imprisonment for drugs dealing in Thailand despite protests from his family that he had been framed.

Tommy McAuley, from Belfast’s Shankhill Road, but an Irish passport holder, failed to convince judges at Pattaya Criminal Court that he was innocent.

Tommy McAuley after his arrested

McAuley, 49, had been accused of being a major drugs dealer by Thai police who arrested him last April in the resort of Pattaya, 100 miles east of Bangkok.

 Prior to his sentence his father Tommy Snr told the ‘Belfast Telegraph: “My son was stitched up. He borrowed the car from a friend to move a plasma television, he had no idea what was inside.

“He was in a hotel when the police came. They didn’t find any drugs on him and the stuff that was in the car wasn’t our Tommy’s.

“The cops’ story is riddled with holes. First of all they said they caught Tommy on the beach selling drugs, then they changed that and said he was arrested outside a supermarket selling drugs. Now they admit he was lifted at the hotel.

“The police also said they had seven witnesses after Tommy’s arrest, but now they have only two because five of them have withdrawn their statements.

“The whole case stinks.”

Thai Police said that McAuley, sold drugs to teenagers in the resort city.

 Said Police Colonel Somnut Jutkate;“He dealt the drugs from his Toyota Fortuna (SUV).  After receiving information we put him under surveillance.”
He added that police used an informant, to buy a quantity of ice valued at 6000 Thai baht. (130 Euros  £115)

Police said they found McAuley with 109 grams of crystal ice in his possession, in two packets, seven tabs of methamphetamine, 11.4 grams of cannabis, and 12 grams of opium.  He also had a set of scales, and 60 bags for packing his drugs in.

He also had on him 52,000 Thai baht (£1107/ Euros 1,124) as well as the 6,000 provided by the informant. McAuley will be transferred to Bangwang Prison, Bangkok to serve his sentence.

He is appealing the conviction.

Interpol warrant

How the story broke

He had the ticket and had booked his seat but just 24 hours before David Fletcher was due to be deported from Thailand - as a persona non grata having served a jail sentence in the UK for sexually abusing a minor - his trip to Blighty was called off, and instead he now awaits deportation to Cambodia.
Fletcher you may recall had his own volunteer project in Phnom Penh’s Stung Mean Srey garbage dump feeding the kids, not really an appropriate occupation for a man who boasted that he had younger sex partners than his children did.
People in Cambodia were concerned but unfortunately not so discreet about it. So much so that half of Phnom Penh including Fletcher, 65, knew that he was being watched. After the Sunday Mirror in the UK published an account of his activities Fletch hopped it across the border to Thailand – not a good choice bearing in mind that Thailand had already started deporting convicted British sexual offenders.
Some of Phnom Penh’s less discreet NGOS were up in arms that a British newspaper had spoiled 18 months of work investigating Fletch. Indeed they were spitting fire and four letter Anglo Saxon words and five letter French ones.

David Fletcher on his food run at Stung Mean

On arrival in Bangkok however Fletch was quickly banged up to await deportation and with consular support feverishly sought help from friends to get him a ticket home.
Britain’s CEOP – Chief Exploitation and Online Protection – investigators essentially had three choices, if indeed they were calling the shots.

(1) Do nothing and let him be deported back to the UK,
(2) Let him return to the UK and re-open an old case involving a minor which had not been actioned.
(3) Let him return to the UK and charge him there with travelling abroad with intent to abuse
(4) Send him back to Cambodia and let the authorities deal with him there on new charges.
They ruled out the first two, perhaps because of the new noise coming from Cambodia and they ruled out number 3, because, I guess,  prosecution would depend on a coherent file coming from Cambodia, an unlikely event.
So number four it was, prompted quickly by the knowledge Fletch had a ticket home to Britain.  Perhaps there was something Henry II and Thomas a Becket about it all.

But getting the Cambodians to get their act together is not easy hence on the 4th of this month, the night before Fletcher was due to fly, there was a flurry of activity at Thailand’s Office of the Attorney General, which rubber stamped Cambodia’s initial application (in which they forgot to ask specifically for extradition) but instead asked in a rather Asian roundabout way ‘that the right thing be done’.
Now it’s entirely up to the Cambodian authorities to present a coherent case for extradition.
Two CEOP officers flew out from London to assist with the investigation but, according to my pals at the  ‘OAG’ it appears the extradition charge only seems to relate to a 16-yr-old, not a minor, who says she was raped.  It’s not difficult to see that a British court may have difficulty convicting on a belated complaint months after the event,  particularly amongst all this politicking.
But it seems the Thais do wish to help the Cambodian’s here and maybe that has something to do with the current sensitive political climate and stressing both countries are pals in ASEAN.
Actually when I wrote the story originally my worst intention was to get this guy out of the way of kids and out of Asia. Having spoken to one of his victims I cannot say I would be unhappy if Cambodia meted out justice in the same way he exercised his ‘power’ back in Britain.

 And on a positive side this all puts the wind up people thinking about going to Cambodia and chasing minors.
But is Cambodia really getting the message or is it all talk and posturing? Some stiff sentences have been overturned within a matter of a few months.

Corbett: Pic The Banker

Further Briton Gareth Ashley Corbett, 51, has now been released from prison after being jailed for year for abusing a 12 year old in Sihanoukville and no effort appears to have been made to deport him. To many people’s concern he is still running around looking for money and an occupation. Its a case surely for prosecution in the UK if CEOP wants to show it is enforcing the new laws back home.

Dying Briton killed by his Thai wife for his money - Metro

Bar girl and an expat - a killing foretold - The Guardian

British farmer’s body scattered over Thai park - The Times

This is the last known picture of retired business man Raymond Hyde smiling happily as his Thai wife in a swirly shirt and 99% pure gold pendant cheekily makes a ‘V’ sign behind his head.

Months later Hyde, 68, from Cheshunt, Herts, who was terminally ill with throat cancer and constriction of the arteries to his brain, was clubbed to death on his wife’s orders, say police.

“She told me she could not be bothered to wait until he died naturally,” said a close relative.

Hyde is the latest victim in a series of killings by Thai wives who can’t wait to get their hands on their inheritance.

Hyde was beaten to death with a piece of wood in the couples’ luxury retirement home. He had told her he was leaving her £200,000, the house, and a bar business.

Ironically the latest killing happened in Hua Hin, 150 miles south of Bangkok. This was the home of Chippenham gentleman farmer, Toby Charnaud, who was beaten to death by his estranged wife’s relatives in 2006, and whose body was then barbecued and fed to the tigers in Kaeng Krajan national park north of Hua Hin.

The murder of Toby Charnaud reported in the Daily Mail

Today Hyde’s wife Bunnag, 38,  nicknamed ‘Namfon’ or ‘Falling Rain’ - was remanded in custody at the provincial capital of Prachuap Kiri Khan on a charge of ‘conspiracy to murder’ on July 27th.

Also charged was her lover Tanakorn.  Her brother Pomgrit, 26, who police say actually carried out of the killing at Hyde’s retirement home in Khao Noi village, Hua Hin, is on the run.

Police in Hua Hin said that the motive was purely his assets

Police Commander Vichien Tantawiriat said: “The wife claimed that her husband beat her and was verbally abusive to her.  But we do not believe her story as he was terminally ill. We believe the only motive was to get his cash quicker.”

The police story is backed up by a cousin of ‘Namfon’ who worked at her bar.

Said Benjawong Singtuen, 32, from Kamphaeng Phet province said:“I worked at the bar when Namfon told me she could not wait for Raymond to die. She said he had promised her 10 million baht and the business and bar were in her name. She continually asked him to buy her gold.”

“She had a series of other lovers who were both Thai and foreigners and like Raymond she met them all in a bar.

“She had lived in England with Raymond who was a very sweet man. But she could not wait to get him back to Thailand. I left her bar. I could not stand her any more. He was very ill. He was dying anyway. This was very evil.

“Her family, who come from Nakhon Sawan, are very ashamed and have gone into hiding.”

Another Briton who met the same fate and Hyde and Charnaud was Ian Beeston, 69, a retired design engineer.

Before he died in 2008 he wrote a letter to his lawyers saying: “It is only a matter of time now. I fear for my life.”

Ian Beeston with Wanna presenting water heaters to local police

He knew his wife Wanna, 42, was planning to kill him at their  £250,000 palatial home in the North Eastern Thai province of Roi-Et ,and he a sat alone at home waiting to defend himself with a stun gun.

But he was beaten in his sleep by his wife’s lover Somchit. Both were later charged with murder.

Thai wives seem happy to take the risk of being caught. Figures show that people charged with murder in Thailand can be out of prison in four years if they are contrite and become model prisoners.

The British Embassy in Bangkok processes on average 70 marriages a week mainly between older Britons with young Thai wives.

ANDREW DRUMMOND,

Bangkok,

Murder in Chiang Mai - Andrew Drummond Times 2 Cover story

 The death of a backpacker 

Tomorrow will be the 10^th anniversary of the murder and rape of backpacker Kirsty Jones, aged 23, in the Aree Guesthouse in Chiang Mai.

Even though Thai police, together with the help of Dyfed Powys Police, have the full DNA profile of her killer no progress was made in finding her killer, although a number of false arrests were made along the way.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2007 announced that he would do everything possible to bring the case to a satisfactory conclusion.  But it never happened.

We know the DNA is of Asian extraction and that at one stage police arrested a Karen hill tribe guide and tried to beat a confession out of him even trying to get him to masturbate to provide a semen sample.

The only reason to get a semen sample would be to plant it in the crime scene. There are many ways of getting DNA. Chiang Mai police wanted to close the case quickly, but they could not do because of the uproar.

It seems impossible that police in Chiang Mai cannot find a match after all these years. I am not the only person who believes that several people actually know who Kirsty’s killer is.

At the time of Kirsty’s murder the DSI was not set up. Had they been set up as a totally independent unit this should have been a case for this type or organization.

Dyfed Powys first visit DS Wilkins in DCI Hughson

I can only hope that with the passage of time somewhere, someone will now come forward with information that can bring this case to a close.

“I am always optimistic. It’s a waiting game. It’s been a long time, but we have the DNA and that’s where the answer lies,” Kirsty’s mum Sue Jones told the BBC today.

Det.Chief Superintendent Steve Wilkins, and Richard Griffiths, Crime Scene Manager in Chiang Mai

A longer interview will be published on the BBC website tomorrow. Meanwhile in Wales I guess Chief Superintendent Steve Hughson and Detective Chief Superintendent Steve Wilkins will always take a call.

Gangland Britain in Thailand - Dinkie’s enforcer

That there is a climate of fear amongst foreigners in Hua Hin created by foreign property dealers is pretty clear. I am getting calls even from foreigners who have not bought into the holiday and retirement housing business there saying they are also affected.
Some are curtailing their social lives because they do not want to go to the pubs and restaurants to meet these guys.
“It’s just not the same place,” said one man who has been living there for twenty years. “People who have lost money do not have a hope in hell of getting it back.”
Said a new buyer who had a confrontation:  “I have met these low life types in the bars. I got ambushed by two of them in the toilets. Now I am looking to buy a condo in Bangkok’.
The fact that a career and violent criminal from Britain can be employed as a debt collector by a property dealer in Hua Hin however speaks volumes.
Hendrikse is indignant. He wrote to me this week saying: “I find it a bit hard to swallow that in some of your publications you write that you trust and respect the judicial system in Thailand, but on the other hand allow yourself to attack Darren Oxley who has been freed of all charges.”
Darren Oxley skipped bail in England while on drugs dealing charges. He is a property dealer in Hua Hin. His wife has been charged with attempted murder of a complainant Donald Whiting.  I can sort of see where this is going.
I can’t spend too much time on stories like this on Hua Hin. It’s unpaid work, dangerous as you can see, and there’s too much of it coming in to my office all the time.
Right here I am wedged between a man of violence and a multi-millionaire. In this climate I would not expect a bunch of retirees looking for a quiet life to stick their necks out on my behalf beyond giving me information on the q.t.
But I feel for the people who have to live through it. They get no consolation from those who espouse’ the fool and his money are soon parted’ idiom.
The property business in Thailand is riddled with foreigners of dubious distinction and they make things difficult for the genuine foreign run agencies. When a story like this pops up on the net it’s not helpful to the property market already suffering from the squeeze.  But that is not my intention at all.  My purpose is purely to alert and inform foreigners of the dangers.
Indeed I can take my family to Hua Hin and have a splendid time – as I did last week – but to be honest I kept out of the centre of town at night, which is what Thais do when they visit Pattaya. There are also good deals to be had.
The fact that no police or local authorities have done anything substantial to help foreigners in distress is not helping matters.  The fact that some of these foreigners are seen to have senior police and local government officials at their parties is also not helpful.
The fact that one house-buyer has been shot and paralysed for life and the  person charged with commissioning his attack runs free, while the trial gets continually delayed, is not helpful.
And this is one of six cases allegedly prioritised by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva for a speedy solution.
Of course this is a ‘foreigner on foreigner’ problem.  I am from the U.K. and in the U.K. one Latvian swindling and beating up another Latvian would not generate much interest either, I suspect.
So people should bare that in mind when seeking help.
Thai property laws are quite specific, foreigners cannot own land in Thailand. Yes, there are 30 year extendable leases. Yes, there are ways of putting houses into ‘Thai’ companies, but these processes have their problems – and they can be massive.
When I confront dodgy property dealers with complaints from individuals their reaction is to immediately discredit the complainant: “Oh, that guy likes young kids”,  or, “We had to lock him out of our office as he was making sexual approaches to our staff” or “He is just a serial complainer he’s had problems with lots of other people”.
None of this washes with me. These sorts of allegations reflect more on the teller. Besides complaints are coming too fast and furiously.
The latest report I have involves another complainant being beaten up while still in bed at home.
So please, I repeat, Thailand is a great place to live if you know the drill.  If you are buying, be careful. Deal with internationally recognized estate agents or realtors or long established Thai companies.  Get a lawyer. Better still get a Bangkok lawyer who is not subject to local influences.
You may not know what trouble you are in until it’s much too late.
Remember the local expression: “The sugar cane has entered the elephant’s mouth”.  Once you hand over the cash you will have to fight ten years to get it back – and by then of course it will be spent.

FOOTNOTE: Hua Hin After Dark

Many thanks to the posters on the Hua Hin After Dark forum who are very supportive, as in this:

“Andrew Drummond’s site is a good source for exposing evil in this town and Thailand” and this

” I agree, he is a first rate investigative journalist”. 

However they were quickly followed by this from the Forum administrator: “For the record:
Drummond openly accused this website of being involved in an attempted murder simply because of one of its advertisers and a vague similarity in their color schemes. He made no attempt to contact HHAD’s owners for their input into the story but drew and published his own conclusions - that is poor journalism in any ones book.

“The forum must protect itself from legal action and threats by Hua Hin’s property developers including the one involved in the incident above as he too threatened the site and its owners financially and personally as have a number of others, including the one you refer to in this ‘week’s thread’.

Good heavens -The ‘Forum Administrator’ has just made it up!  

I rather think i have to defend myself here because if the bold ‘For the record’ emphasises the truth in what the Forum Administrator is saying, readers should go here and read the comments at the end to see exactly what I did say. Which, to precis, is that the forum administrator is in ‘cloud, cuckoo, land’ and maybe a bit of a bed-wetter. Nothing anywhere of accusing him of attempted murder or any property developer’s colour scheme.

So of course why should I contact the forum’s administrators? I have to ask my self

 
ANDREW DRUMMOND

HUA HIN, AUGUST 07 2010

Gunshots in the night, a man screaming in pain floundering in a swimming pool, an armed police raid, murder threats, and some tasty and violent characters from the British crime scene –  these are episodes from the continuing soap opera at a housing project for foreigners in Thailand.
According to a local real estate agent’s blurb at the launch of this project in Hua Hin on the Gulf of Thailand: “It is hard to believe that less than a year ago, this was grazing farm land where the only movement was that of an elephant taking tourists through the stunning foothills of Hua Hin”. For once an estate agent’s blurb is quite credible.

Sheer terror near ‘Far from Worries’

‘Avalon’,  the legendary place where King Arthur’s sword ‘Excalibur’ was forged , is also an estate in the town where Thailand’s King Bumiphol Adulyadej has his palace called ‘Far from Worries’.
But perhap closes to sheer terror have been the mix of Britons, Dutch, Scandinavians, and Asians who have bought homes in the estate. And this story is the stuff of legend.

Dingeman Hendrikse

Problems long associated with this project by Dutchman Dingeman Hendrikse – known as ‘Dinkie’ – were brought to a head this year after he employed the occupier of Avalon 81, situated right bang at the entrance of the village, as his ‘debt collector’ and to sort out the recalcitrant foreigners.
It seems scores of residents were withholding large sums of money for a variety of reasons because either they don’t have it or they are complaining of shoddy worksmanship, leaking pools, failed promises - allegations which of course the company strenuously denies.
From early this year, claim residents, a reign of terror began on the estate, perpetrated by the new enforcer whose house overlooked the one and only exit road.
The occupier of ‘81′ went under various names -  but his real name is Jason Coghlan.

(Above: Jason Coghlan/file picture)

Jason Coghlan is a man not to be messed with. He is a man with a very violent past. For most of his prison time, including his last prison sentence, he served as a ‘Double Category A ” prisoner. This is reserved for terrorists and the most violent criminals in Britain.

When he was last released from prison after being sentenced to a term of 12 years for armed robbery he was, as is customary, escorted to the gates by police dog handlers with Alsations. 

But he is better known in gangland as the north of England’s ‘Sword of Damocles’. Altogether, including remands, he has been jailed seven times.

Jason Coghlan is the elder brother of Arran Coghlan aka ‘The Teflon Don’, or ‘Teflon Godfather’, reportedly leader of one of Britain’s most influential  international crime syndicates - and a man who has a very long arm.

Arran Coghlan was released in Britain a week ago after being acquitted of his third murder charge

Arran Coghlan - the 'Teflon Don'

He was accused of killing another gang leader, Stephen ‘Aki’ Akenyemi,  also known as the ‘King of the Hill’ and the leader of a Manchester ‘Cheetham Hill Gang’, allegedly in control of most of the north of England drugs trade. 

Forced to drink petrol and burned alive

Arran Coghlan had already been cleared in 1996 of murdering ‘Mr. Big’ Chris Little,  who was shot dead at the wheel of his Mercedes in Stockport, Manchester. In fact Jason Coghlan initially stood in the dock for this murder but he was cleared at the end of proceedings committing the case for trial

In  2003 when Arran Coghlan stood trial for the murder of drug dealer David Barnshaw, who was kidnapped and forced to drink petrol before being burned alive in the back of a car in Stockport, Manchester, he was again cleared.  The case collapsed when it was revealed police had failed to pass on important information about another possible suspect.
Coghlan’s successful legal battles with the police have earned him his nickname.  Nothing of course sticks to Teflon.

A smart man like Hendrikse a ‘pillar of the community’ should be circumspect about whom he employs. But Jason Coghlan turned up in a suit with a couple of dodgy references and was instantly taken on.

Some people could be forgiven for believing Hendrikse thought he had just the man for the job, for ‘Dinkie’ has also admitted that he had seen articles on the internet about Arran, later finding Jason himself on the web with reference to his latest armed robbery - but only ‘after two months’. By this time of course things were getting into full swing.

Stephen Akinyemi 'King of the Hill'

Jason Coghlan set to work with alacrity and claimed Dinkie was soon’ impressed’ with how he dealt with a Thai intruder on the estate, apparently an ex-guard. His method was of extreme violence.  The intruder, who was breaking into houses, had to be carried out unconscious.

Coghlan learned his trade while with 45 Commando of Britain’s Royal Marines but even they had to discharge him for being ‘too violent’ while on leave. His unit were alerted to his appearances in court.

Hendrikse denies he was impressed with Coghlan’s dismissal of the ‘Avalon intruder. In fact he appeared a little bit miffed. He said it was a currently employed ‘guard’ who had been attacked.

While violence is Jason’s stock in trade, he attaches an old fashioned villain’s morality to his work. He says he allows his ‘customers’ to think and present a solution before dealing his coup de grace.

As to Jason’s employment Hendrikse said: “He presented himself as a lawyer desperately looking for work.” But Coghlan does not have the law degree he had on headed notepaper, even though no doubt he has read many law books, and he certainly does not have the look of the Temple Bar about him.

Had Hendrikse had the chance to look at the label inside Coghlan’s suit jacket he would have seen that the tailor’s label had been replaced with one saying ‘Gangster’. ‘It saves words’, Coghlan told friends. But the signs would have been visible anyway in Coghlan’s manner.

Hendrikse gave him office space at his rather empty ‘Business Centre’ in Hua Hin Soi 23, above the Hua Hin Immigration office.
Thus the die was cast in a game which seems far from over.  40-yr-old Coghlan was presented with a list of Dinkie’s troublesome foreigners and creditors and set to work with enthusiasm. The first to pay up were two brothers from Leicester, England, who owed in the region of £6000. They were holding cash back because, they claimed in correspondence I have, that their swimming pool , among other things, leaked.

“Don’t come with the wrong attitude’

However it appears that if they wished to keep their good health they should settle quickly: “I told them to come around to my house and discuss it. But if they came with the wrong attitude they would not be leaving,” Coghlan told friends. “They came politely and paid up and Dinkie laughed his head off when I told him the story.”

Letters were drawn up by Coghlan warning residents holding final payment that they ’should be fully aware that the developers would be seeking to be awarded your property’.

Residents were perhaps intimidated by the gunshots at night as Coghlan reportedly fired at blow-up plastic crocodiles and sharks in his swimming pool.
And when one resident pompously said he was not scared of the likes of  ‘low life’ Coghlan he was told to put on his running shoes as Coghlan would be at his house in as long as he took to do so.  Coghlan seemed a pretty good debt collector albeit rather noisy and one who might be jailed elsewhere.
A story, which I cannot confirm as the bar is now closed, also alleges that Coghlan shot a bar owner from Bintabat, Hua Hin’s main girly ‘Street of Shame’,  who had the ‘bloody cheek’ to call and collect 10,000 baht for an unpaid ‘padded’ bar bill. 

Avalon 81 - Guard post against residents? No safe place for blow-up crocs and others

He was allegedly dragged up to the second floor of No 81, shot in the front of his thigh, and lobbed into the swimming pool, followed by a few shots around him to encourage his hasty but limping departure.
Coghlan apparently has no time for small time foreign ‘weasels’ in Thailand’s beer bar business.

‘Know your limitations’

Coghlan was told by Dinkie to keep a lower profile. But he was not a man to be intimated by the likes of Hendrikse. Coghlan told a friend: “He thinks he’s one of us. But he is not in the same league. He should listen to the famous Clint Eastwood line: ‘Know your limitations.’”
Coghlan apparently says he was given a series of targets to deal with. One was a Briton from Crawley,  Sussex, who had written complaining about Hendrikse on the quite private Avalon community web forum.
Paperwork in my possession shows how Dinkie proposed taking the man to the criminal and civil courts for libel, essentially a long, time-consuming, and debilitating process for the accused.
Dinkie’s argument was that his unblemished reputation had been impugned, that he ‘was a well respected family man and businessman, an employee of Thai people and people of other nationalities, and a benefactor to many charities including an animal charity.’  I don’t contest these claims. His first wife and five children upped and left him and are now living nearby with another Dutchman calling himself ‘Dick Bos’, but he has re-married with a new family.  And while he did set up an animal charity with a friend, he is no longer on the board, another rather complicated yarn also involving threats, lawyers, and the police.
In any case the man from Crawley called the bluff and the case was abandoned. He had in the main been complaining to fellow residents about Dinkie’s broken promises, The point of the forum was for residents to  to be able to air their problems.

Hendrikse admitted ording the court proceedings, as of course is his right, because he said his daughter at school had been told her father was a thief.

According to Coghlan,  Hendrikse also told him to ‘deal with’ ‘Dick Bos’who had taken away his family and an Indian businessman and resort owner called Saheim Abid Sheriff.  The latter had recently been awarded 11 million Thai baht from Hendrikse by the Supreme Court in a story with a very Machiavellian twist.

Hendrikse emphatically denies these claims by Coghlan. He claims he that if he wished to do anything to Dick Bos he would have done it five years ago when they had their troubles, and if he wished to do anything illegal against Sheriff he would have done it ten years ago. But in any case he was not a man of violence.

“I have never been convicted of any crime either here or the Netherlands.”

Coghlan also claimed he had also information which could shed light on the attack on Keith Burbage, a former director of The Stationery Office in the UK,  who has now fled Thailand and is touring South America with no immediate intention of returning. But Coghlan denied any involvement, saying it was done by Thais.

Keith Burbage wanted his money back

Burbage, from Fulham, London, lost a £40,000 deposit  plus another 20,000 on legal fees etc, on a £200,000 house he had booked through Dinkie and an agent after, he claimed, the plot he booked was not available and he was told to take another one.   As a result of the badwill he felt uncomfortable living in the area and moved to live in a local condo in central Hua Hin.  Outside the condo he was severely beaten by assailants who have not been identified. The local press ran with the story saying ’suspected foreign gangsters’ were involved, but as usual there was no resolution.

This week Keith Burbage emailed me from his temporary hacienda in Latin America:

“I don’t feel safe in Hua Hin and as such the experience has coloured my view of Thailand”

“In the end it became apparent that Dinkie et al are bullet proof and there was no point in continuing so for my own safety I folded.
 
“The biggest cost is the life style change. I had found a  beautiful place to live and established a good circle of friends most of which is now denied to me. I don’t feel safe in Hua Hin  and as such the experience coloured my view of Thailand.   Now, I’m rolling round the world -yes, I know I am lucky to be able to do it - looking for another place to settle down”.

I have no evidence Hendrikse had anything to do with this attack and again he denies being personally involved. Nevertheless a former director of one of Britain’s largest companies is now scared to live in Hua Hin.

Hendrikse stresses: “I have never done anything in my life violent and see it as anti-social to use such means. I would not dare expose myself like you do.”

He claimed that Burbage WAS offered the right plot of land. 

“He made the deal, paid 2 million baht to the agent and in the end did not proceed. If he thinks he has been swindled he should have contacted the police or taken a civil case.” 

Burbage did actually start proceedings against the agent, who actually took the cash, but he gave up. The thought of fighting through the courts for ten years against someone who could just as easily disappear, or not have the money to pay, and the ensuing discomfort for his own security, was crushing, he said.

Both Dinkie and Burbage are in agreement over one thing - he has lost his money.

Meanwhile gangster Jason told a friend:“ Dinkie was impressed with my way of doing things. Once in his office I found him being chased around the table by a person he said was his Thai brother-in-law. I knocked the man out with one punch.  Afterwards we had to drag him unconscious down the stairs.  We laid him at the bottom, within sight of the immigration office and pretended he had fallen down the stairs.”

‘Out of control’

As time rolled on the mutual contempt between Hendrikse and Coghlan was becoming apparent. 
Hendrikse had apparently employed the services of an enforcer he could not control and who was conducting his own business, and began distancing himself saying Coghlan was just taking the law into his own hands as if he had ‘carte blanche’.  Coghlan had become a serious liability.
Coghlan meanwhile was telling residents that ‘Hendrikse’ was a little ‘sh*t’ whom he would sort out in due time. All this, of course, was going back to Hendrikse.

Sample of Coghlan's introduction letter. Follow up letters were not so polite. 'Owners' were told their homes would be taken from them.

Hendrikse terminated Coghlan’s employment. At the time Coghlan told friends:“ He was only paying expenses plus 50,000 a month and a car.  I said: ‘Fine. Pay what you owe and then give me 2 million baht to repair my shitty little swimming pool which leaks a couple of inches every day,”.
 

Hendrikse says there was a settlement but that his final agreement with Coghlan was confidential and they agreed both not to meet again but parted amicably.

“I have cleared all outstanding issues and was never directly threatened by him. I have received threats from other people, claiming threats are coming from Jason, but I have no evidence that they are.”

 A few days after his dismissal, said Coghlan, three Thai men turned up at his house gates with wooden staves.
“I knocked one out, broke the leg of another and the third ran in the direction of the guards at the gate who had let them in.”  Of course by then Jason may have had many enemies in Hua Hin.

Hendrikse admitted: “Graham Kane is now hiding abroad and quit his job on the day in question, but will return to sort the accounts out.”

He added that because of this incident and other threats ‘currently there are about seven people who are under pressure, of whom a few have left the country because of this. Others lay low and have guards round or in their houses. Nobody went to the police for fear of repercussions”.

Residents however believe that it is more than coincidence that Kane’s departure followed his hasty collection of funds.

As Hendrikse provided accommodation for and appeared to have a close relationship with the Hua Hin Immigration Police Office himself, Coghlan says he made a tactical decision to leave the town. “But I will be back!”
On July 22nd armed police raided his home in his absence.
A property agent who was looking over the house at the time said: “The police said they were from Pattaya, but there was also a Hua Hin police pick-up truck there.  They told me Jason was wanted on 29 charges from  two charges of murder, attempted murder to blackmail. They were looking for bullet holes. One of them had a small machine gun”

Could this be the infamous Pattaya ‘Swat’ team? Well probably not. And there is a major mystery over this raid because officially at least nobody in Pattaya, Banglamuang, or Hua Hin police and immigration stations appears to know anything about it.

Enquiries revealed that the complaint to police was not made directly by Hendrikse but by a close friend and, perhaps not so strangely, to a policeman in Pattaya not to police in Hua Hin whose patch it is.
“Coghlan’s a monster. He has a criminal record. He should not be here,” said the friend, not surprisingly asking for anonymity, if not also 24 hour protection.
Where will this end?  Family ties are strong in the criminal fraternity in the UK.  In Manchester a crime war is almost certainly going to start up again at the reaction of black crime bosses after the acquittal of Arran Coghlan.
But Arran Coghlan is a skilled ‘multi-tasker’.  If the British gang have been told Hendrikse is in ‘breach of the code’ then their international reach is limitless. Coughlan believes that the armed raid on his home was not a serious attempt at arrest.   “It was a hit. I was going to be taken out. The charges were all rubbish. I have no doubt police came with their safety catches off.”

In an email today Dinke later claimed he is now getting direct threats from Coghlan which included a a picture of a man wearing a balaclava.

This business could have mixed results on the residents of Dinkie’s housing projects in Thailand.  There is a claim that up to 90 per cent appear have leaseholds on their houses in Avalon, and the leaseholds are still in the name of  one of Hendrikse’s company. If so they will need him to get the property leases in their own names.  They have reportedly paid fees of 100,000 Thai baht each to do so.
What is odd is that Hendrikse appears to have been also conducting a lot of his business involving his Thai properties in banks abroad. In his Avalon brochure buyers are instructed to pay their cash into the account of Axaroc N.V. at the Dexia Bank in Hoevenen, Belgium or they can also send cash to Axaroc N.V. in Willemstad, Curacao, in the Dutch Antilles.

Hendrikse says this is because customers wanted to pay in dollars or euros. Others might have different terms for this.

The Avalon brochure explains: “A Thai bank can be provided, however it is subject to the Thai government restrictions on transfer values”. 

Thus people are falsely warned that there are problems bringing cash into Thailand to buy property.

Send your money to Belgium please

It follows that many cannot prove they have brought cash into the country to buy their property.  All they have is a transfer slip to a European bank and perhaps a local receipt from Hendrikse. 

But the scenario of Hendrikse taking back houses however en masse is unlikely.

Meanwhile Avalon Management have sent an email to all residents of projects in Hua Hin which include Summerlands and Camelot, confirming they have closed the company down and dismissed all their staff. The letter comes from Graham Kane, now believed to have fled to Hong Kong, but who spent his few weeks of power trying to get everyone to pay their ‘service fees’.

‘You will see what your actions bring you!’ - Graham Kane

“To All owners
As we stated in several recent pieces of correspondence the overall company had to be profit making to be sustainable.
Having now done a two year projection based on several factors, e.g. status of the world economy and prediction for economic growth etc
We now sadly have decided we cannot continue and will close all our current operations in Thailand. This decision was not taken lightly
All our staff have been informed that their employment is terminated. We will transfer the last few activities to others;

Avalon
The running of the services on Avalon 1, currently done under the Avalon Owners Company (AOC) will be stopped as well. This has nothing to do with the economic climate as this business could run well even during the economic dip. The constant demoralizing actions of a small group of people who are certainly not working with the best interest of all owners in mind has been the single most damaging action and has also lead to uncontrolled and insufficient payment of the fees needed to operate the site. they just pay what they want and do not respect any majority decisions.
Owners should be very aware that the people in the group of malicious owners only want to dictate what happens for their own benefit and not for the good of all if they do not wish to end up like last year.
Summerland
The services on Summerland were hit by the same problems of bad payments and some ever unhappy clients, but Jane and Claire were very supportive.

Avaron Concepts in the Biz Centre in Hua Hin Soi 23. This is where attacks were allegedly made on Graham Kane and Hendriske's brother in law. The Immigration office is to the left at the end

To all of you who have tried to destroy all that is good on your projects I can only say; “You will see what your actions will bring you!

Graham Kane”

Well , there’s certainly no love lost there, but at least the owners will be able to run their own estates at last.  Last year there was a fracas on the estate as the residents committee tried to stop Dinkie and two others walking off with all the pool cleaning equipment – at least that’s what it says in the Residents’ Committee minutes sent to me.
Meanwhile anxious residents, who do not have their own water and electricity meters, look like they will have to cough out again.  There is a 150,000 baht water bill waiting to be paid, which was not paid out of their service fees – and they are awaiting their electricity bill.

Last night I got a call from a resident of Hua Hin: “Avalon is in total darkness,” he said.

I guess the electricity bill arrived and it was not paid.

SAM’S STORY

How one man finally got justice

Sam

Indian born businessman Saheim Abid Sheriff gave up his business in Moscow some 14 years ago during the previous economic depression and was on his way to Australia when he stopped off in Hua Hin.
He loved the place and, in the tourism and travel business himself , he wanted to invest in the business in the seaside town.  He put in 15 million baht and Dingeman Henrikse put in 7.5 million baht into a hotel project bang in the centre of town on what is now the site of the Pavilion, opposite the Hua Hin Sofitel.
Sam decided to run the hotel himself which he did successfully. Eight months into running a successful business he claimed he was approached by Hendrikse to sign some document in a hurry otherwise they would be ‘liable to a fine of 600,000 baht’ the following day.
He did not read Thai so he took the documents to his accountant, who said they were all kosher, and he signed and forgot all about it.
About six months later Hendrikse approached him, he said, and announced he wanted someone else to take over the hotel.  “I said ‘No way!’ We were both equal partners and I could veto it.
“Then Hendrikse said I was not a director anymore and I had better check. I thought he was joking.  It was at the stage that I found out that I had signed myself out of the company without my knowledge.
“From that moment on I was locked out of my business. But worse was to follow. Immigration were informed that I was working without a work permit.
“Actually I had found a job and was just about to start and this all happened when I went to apply for my new visa and work permit. I was then arrested and taken up to Bangkok where I spent 29 days in the Immigration Detention Centre.

Sign outside Hua Him Immigration Police Office

“It was only through friends I had made in Hua Hin that I managed to get out.  But I had to send my wife four year old daughter and six month old son  back to Russia because I could not support them here.”
After getting out of the IDC he discovered that his accountant had been appointed a senior manager of the hotel!
Despite almost being crushed into the ground, with his knowledge of the tourism trade and business savvy, Sam managed to pick up the pieces. He did this by approaching an hotelier and offering to fill his hotel with tourists from the Middle East, Russia and South Africa, which he did successfully on a commission basis.
It took him years to claw back his losses but today he owns three resorts and is a successful businessman in Hua Hin.
For ten years he fought Hendrikse through the courts. “Dinkie fought all the way in his usual style, failing to turn up at court on many occasions, making derisory offers.”
On March 18th this year the Supreme Court ordered Hendrikse to pay 11 million baht compensation for locking him out of his business.  Sam is now pursuing other civil cases, one for 40 million for defrauding him of his shares, and plans to go to the criminal court.
He said earlier this year he was approached by a Hua Hin bar owner to tell him to call a Bangkok number. The bar owner said he had been told to warn him off his court actions against Hendrikse or there would be serious trouble.
“He gave me a number to call in Bangkok but I ignored it. I forgot about it but out of the blue I got a call from an Englishman calling himself ‘Dick’ telling me that if I did not stop my actions against Hendrikse people would come down  to Hua Hin and kill me.
“I told him I was not worried by his threats and invited Dick to Hua Hin. He never came of course. Afterwards I lodged a formal complaint with the police, though nothing was ever done.
“I have since met this man Jason. He is not the sort of person I will have any truck with. But he is not the person who called me from Bangkok.  In any case how would he know I was in dispute with Hendrikse?”

Today Sam is pragmatic. “I want to say to those who have been victims here – fight it. You can fight and win. I went to lawyers in Bangkok who cannot be influenced and who immediately recognized what nonsense I was up against.
“And at the end of the day in the property business in Hua Hin you can count the crooks on one hand. It’s just that they make a lot of noise.   Hua Hin is still a delightful resort.
However Sam’s story is not apparently for general public consumption in Hua Hin.
“I informed all the media, newspapers, forums etc. Nobody would touch it.”

Hendrikse’s answer was: “Sam got lucky. We were never heard in the case due to a lawyer who did not turn up. Without a defence the case was doomed.”

Court and arbitration records however show that lawyers did show up for Hendrikse, though many times the cases had to be adjourned and he did change lawyers.

More to the point is that it took ten years for Sheriff get some of his money back.