Andrew Drummond

 

From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok, July 4 2009

An Irish scientist arrested in Thailand and accused of shoplifting at Bangkok’s international airport yesterday fled  with her husband and one year old son.

Dr. Angela ‘ Ashie’ Norris, from Dublin, a scientist working for the international fish farming company Marine Harvest  in Letterkenny, boarded a European bound flight after checking out of the city’s five star Metropolitan Hotel.
Last night they were all back at their home in Churchtown, Dublin.
Dr. Norris had been seized by Thai police  at the request of King Power for alleged shoplifting after attending an International Symposium as a guest of a Kasetsart University, Bangkok.
Prior to their departure husband Dr. Ronan Loftus, a director of IdentiGen, the Dublin based company which tracks DNA in food, had flown from Dublin with their one year old son Aran. Since then he said he had been in regular contact with the Irish Ambassador in Kuala Lumpur  Eugene Hutchinson and Eóin Duggan, the Deputy Head of Mission.
“The Department of Foreign Affairs have been fully informed.”

The non executive Chairman of IdentiGen,  Dr. Patrick Cunningham is Chief scientific advisor to the Irish government.
Dr. Norris, 41, the mother of three boys, aged  5, 4, and 1, was arrested on Thursday June 24, after allegedly stealing a ‘Bobbi Brown’ eyeliner worth 900 Thai baht (18.87 Euros) from the duty free zone at Suvarnabhumi International airport in Bangkok  - a kilometre long area of duty free and designer shops, including  branches of Harrods and Boots, run by King Power.
The arrest came in the middle of an international scandal over the Duty Free Zone in which claims were made that people arrested there for alleged shoplifting were being shaken down for vast amounts of money to gain their freedom.
The Irish Embassy along with other Embassies in Thailand is considering updating their travel advisory to Thailand.  On Thursday last week the British Embassy was the first Embassy to issue a warning about commercial area at Suvarnabhumi International airport.
“This advice has been reviewed and reissued with amendments to the Crime section (shops and stalls, particularly in market areas and at Suvarnabhumi Airport). 
“You should also be careful to observe demarcation lines between shops and stalls, particularly in market areas and at Suvarnabhumi Airport.  Taking items from one shop’s area to another is likely to be treated by shop staff as suspected theft.  You may be arrested by the police and asked to pay a substantial fine and/or face imprisonment”

This followed the case of a British couple from Cambridge, Stephen Ingram and Xi Lin, both IT specialists who were forced to pay out the equivalent of 9337 Euros for their freedom after being accused of stealing a Givenchy wallet worth 140 Euros from an airport duty free shop. 
Dr. Norris was arrested as she awaited a late night flight back to Dublin via London.  She had been in Bangkok at the invitation of Kasetsart University for the ‘10th International Symposium on Genetics and Aquaculture.”
“I had been cooped up in the conference for four days and had no time to do shopping. So at the airport I bought some stuff for my children and then decided to treat myself to some make-up”.
She had approached the cashier with two items she said.  She presented her boarding card and credit card and signed the slip.
Two minutes after she left she shop she said she was surrounded by security guards employed by King Power, a company run by a Thai businessman and polo playing chum of Britain’s Prince Charles.
“They were shouting at me. ‘You! You!  You go jail six months!’  I did not know what they were talking about. They took the eyeliner off me and started waving it in my face.   I said I had paid for it, but when I looked at the receipt it was only a receipt for 576 baht (12 Euros) for the Bobby Brown lipstick.”

“They took me to the airport police station and then to a police station outside the airport. It was terrifying. The cell was filthy and stank and was full of mosquitoes.  I paced the cell all night. I did not want to sit or lie down.”
“What do I do?” she asked the Irish  Mail on Sunday last week. “I have never been away from my baby son for more than four days. I have to do whatever it takes to get home.”
“ I did not steal the eyeliner. I did not intend to steal the eyeliner. But I did leave the shop without paying for it. Of course I may have to pay to go free.
“To fight the case I would have to wait for up to a year if I pleaded not guilty and several months even if I were to plead guilty. They have you and they know it.”
It was not immediately clear how Dr. Norris left Thailand. She did not appear in court but claimed authorities told her she had no case to answer. But she also claimed just hours before her departure that her passport had not been returned and no longer trusted anybody. The Irish government may have given her a second passport in her married name.
Her husband Ronan, the Director in charge of Global Development for IdentiGen said: “What is happening here is outrageous and needs to be exposed.  It’s a national scandal.”

Dr Loftus has also worked for UNFAO, the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation.

 
On June 25th Dr. Norris was given bail in the sum of 100,000 Thai baht (2097 Euros),  after contacting Thai friends who said they would negotiate with the police, and then released from Rajatewa Police station near the international airport. 
Late on Thursday she told the Irish Mail on Sunday: “I spent all day at the police station and prosecutor’s office. My understanding from both the police chief and the prosecutor is that there is no case to answer.   They said that my passport would be returned and Immigration Police would stamp me out of the country”.
But when she went to Immigration Police Headquarters on Friday she said she was arrested again.
Close to tears she said: “We do not know what is going on. We do not trust anybody.  Thailand has a public holiday for the first three days of next week. We cannot even talk to anybody.  We have to leave.
“ I have only been to Bangkok once before, twenty years ago, after I left University.
“Then my friends  and I fell for the local jewellery scam. By the time we reached Australia we had virtually no money left”
(The jewellery scam is a famous Bangkok scam. Tourists are told they have arrived on a special day when the government is giving massive discounts on jewellery for selected tourists.  They can pay for their holidays with the profits,  they are told.)
Husband Ronan, 43 added: “We have no choice but to leave. We have people who will help us.  The Irish Government is being supportive.”
K.P. Company Ltd, which trades under the name King Power is owned by Vichai Ratsriaksorn, President of the Siam Polo Club and Ham Polo Club, just outside London. He has a stable of 100 polo ponies.
King Power insists it has sold evidence against the Britons,  Stephen Ingram and Xi Lin, and Dr. Norris.
Managing Director  Sombat Dechapanichkul said: “The evidence (CCTV) clearly shows that Mrs. Norris only presented one item to the cashier. We would like to confirm that none of our staff are involved in (any) extortion and scam.”
To support their case King Power have been putting up video clips on the internet. ( http://www.kingpower.com/2009/index.php#). Travel Trade Report in an article this week says that King Power feel victimised over the recent allegations. The company is expected shortly to put up video of Dr. Norris.

Stephen Ingram denies that the video clip implicates him and is suing for 1 million Thai baht for wrongful arrest and imprisonment. The video appears to show Xi Lin putting he wallet in her shoulder bag while Stephen Ingram looks on.

He says he has no evidence that King Power is in on the scam but was told that part of his money had already been paid to security staff at King Power.

Dr.Norris says that what she saw does not implicate her either.  Dr. Norris, author of ‘Breeding for business’, needed to return home to her family and her work for Marine Harvest, which is one of the two biggest salmon farming companies in the world.

Said Stephen Ingram: “The scam does not happen until you get to the police station. We had to pay, and for that we got letters from the prosecutor’s office and police saying there was no evidence against us. The only other choice was a year in jail. But we were innocent anyway”, he told the Irish Mail on Sunday.

He said that the principal dealer, a Sri Lankan police volunteer/ translator, Sunil Rathnayaka had tried to scam him right up to the last minute. We had already paid out the equivalent of £8000 then as we were leaving he asked for another £1000. We just did not have it.

“He boasted that he had dealt with 160 other cases. He had three houses. He claimed he did it to help people. He did not need the money.”

Rathnayaka, who receives the money at an account of Siam Commercial Bank at Big C in Rajdamri Bangkok, had approached Dr. Norris, but disappeared when the scandal broke.  “Don’t get a lawyer. I am the only person who can help.” he had said.

The British Embassy says that some 25 of its citizens have been arrested over the last two and a half years. They are liaising with other Embassies to build a fuller picture of what is going on.

The Irish Department of Foreign Affairs says that Dr.Norris had been given full consular support.

“The issue of the travel advisory is under discussion with our Consular Division, our mission in Kuala Lumpur and the Consulate in Bangkok.

I can confirm that we have no record of any similar arrests of Irish citizens at Suvarnabhumi airport.”