Tag Archive for ‘Big Trouble in Thailand’ at Andrew Drummond

Tag Archive for 'Big Trouble in Thailand'

British broadcasting ‘watchdog’ rejects complaint about ‘Big Trouble in Thailand’ UPDATED

Published

on October 29, 2009

. 11 Comments

Has Ofcom ruled lies can’t hurt us? Rory Bremner has the last laugh.

Britain’s broadcasting watchdog ‘Ofcom’ has rejected complaints about the documentary series ‘Big Trouble in Thailand’ brought by the series producer himself.

In rejecting the complaint Ofcom says that Gavin Hill was not entitled to complain as he did not feature in the series, nor was he connected to the subjects of the series, Thai police, tourists, police volunteers etc.

Gavin Hill

A complaint by Hill that the series also falsely repeatedly stated that last year 288 Brits were killed in Thailand, when in fact that was the number of Brits who had just died in Thailand, was also rejected as Ofcom judged that this ‘would not result in material harm to viewers ‘

The controversial series ‘Big Trouble in Thailand’ was originally sold by Hill as ‘Thai Cops’ to comedian Rory Bremner’s company Vera Productions and went out earlier this year on the ‘Bravo’ Channel in Britain.

Hill, former APTV chief in Singapore, had complained that the company had failed to fact check when they edited in London and had made some unethical cuts to alter the reality of situations.

Dean Palmer Does he read his email?

Roger Riach, the son of a Scots woman who died after being mugged in Bangkok has also complained about the television series. Despite the London executive producer Dean Palmer having been notified of her death, which in any case was widely reported in the press, the programme reported two weeks ago that Lydia Riach was still alive and Thai police were hot on the trail of her killer. They also named Dougie and Roger Riach, her husband and son, as ‘ Tony’ and ‘John’ without any explanation.

Said Gavin Hill: “This is just the sort of stuff I have been up against. I emailed Dean Palmer with the full update about Lydia’s death.”

It is believed the report was included to replace another jet-ski incident, after a showdown with Royal Marines in Phuket and a jet-ski operator, caused wide controversy in Thailand

The text of the Ofcom rejection follows below:

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:51
Subject: Big Trouble in Tourist Thailand: Bravo Ref: 1-129444255
Dear Mr Hill

Thank you for submitting a fairness and privacy complaint form.

I note you are the programme maker of the series Big Trouble in Tourist Thailand but that you do not appear in nor are referred to in the programme.
In order to bring a complaint of unfair treatment in the programme as broadcast or unwarranted infringement of privacy in the making or broadcast of a programme, our criteria for “person affected” must be satisfied. In accordance with our procedures for handling fairness and privacy complaints (copy attached), the “person affected” is a person who is a participant in a programme and is the subject of the alleged unfair treatment or unwarranted infringement of privacy or has a direct interest in the subject matter of the alleged unfair treatment or unwarranted infringement of privacy and if a direct interest then that the interest is sufficiently direct.

Having read your complaint, I note you were not a participant in the programme nor were you referred to. The subject matter of the programme complained of appears to be the work of the Thai Police authorities. As the programme maker you therefore do not have a direct interest in the subject matter of the programme. Furthermore, the issues you raise are potential issues of unfairness in the making of the programme and this falls outside of Ofcom’s remit. Broadcasters have the right to editorial freedom when making programmes providing, in the case of fairness and privacy, it does not result in unfairness in the broadcast programme or unwarranted infringement of privacy in the making or broadcast of the programme to a “person affected”.

With regard to your complaint about accuracy relating to the opening statement in the programme that last year 288 Britons were killed in Thailand, this has been assessed under the Standards section of the Ofcom Broadcasting Code (“the Code”) under Harm and Offence.

We assess such matters against Rule 2.2 of the Code, which directs that factual programmes or items or portrayals of factual matters must not materially mislead the audience, but is intended to deal with content which materially misleads the audience so as to cause harm rather than accuracy per se.
While we acknowledge your distinction between describing someone being killed and dying, in this particular context, which was simply a factual reference to the number of deaths, we don’t judge this would result in material harm to viewers in the sense of our rules.
I am sorry that we cannot consider your complaint further but thank you for contacting Ofcom.

Kind regards

Julia Snape

Fairness & Privacy,Content & Standards

Comment: No surprises here but its nice to know that Ofcom appears to support the notion that false information cannot harm us.

Hill and Palmer when times were good!

But whatever happens these chaps will not be sitting in the same love-seat anymore.

The shot here was taken in happier times before Dean Palmer left to supervise the edit in the UK.

The R in Vera is Rory Bremner and the A is Geoff Atkinson, Bremner’s producer and partner in the company. Actually Geoff, with whom I have been in correspondence over BTIT, is one of Britain’s top comedy writers and producers and has written for Cannon and Ball, Ronnie Barker, as well of course from Bremner.

He has also made some serious investigative docs.

His series ‘Heil Honey I’m home’ based on Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun sharing a house in the suburbs was however taken off after one episode.

Well I can see the humour there, after all we have had the ‘Producers’, ‘Allo Allo’ and ‘Hogan’s Heroes all taking the fun out of the Nazis. Perhaps it was ahead of its time.

Dean Palmer is a different sort of fish to track down although his background on zoominfo includes such greats as ‘I’m a Celebrity Get me out of here’, ‘Survivor’, Dispatches etc, Assignment and The Big Story further searches have revealed little more. However on Vera’s website he is listed as one of the company’s ‘two thinkers’. One of his programme’s ‘Sky Crimes’ was apparently short-listed for an Emmy, but when I looked up Sky Crimes he was not on the list of major credits which included producer or director.

Gavin Hill has more of a news background starting as sound broadcaster in Picaddily Radio, Manchester, he went on to be APTV’s man in Singapore and has reported from Afghanistan, Peru, and umpteen more places and we were both on the hunt for Nick Leeson.

He has also been a Hollywood TV reporter based out of LA, an instructor in television journalism, worked for ‘Real TV and subsequently even gave a talk once entitled: ‘Quality TV - My part in its downfall’, though I think (I hope) that was self effacement rather than a real statement of fact.

Mind you he does have a dark television secret involving a giant rubber ball and the Grand Canyon, I believe. I haven’t got to the bottom of that yet.

Big Trouble in Thailand - finally the truth and an apology

Published

Andrew Drummond

on October 13, 2009

in General News

. 26 Comments

This is a blog only

btit-crew-shot-jetty1

Today my friends at Phuketwan are reporting that all jet-skis in Patong Beach are now insured. This is now perhaps the time to put the lid on an incident in June this year involving a row over a damaged jet ski, British Royal Marines, and a payment of 35,000 Thai baht. etc…. and reveal the truth.

The series producer of ‘Big Trouble in Thailand’ Gavin Hill was not present for the edit in London and as such he appears to have been unable to stop some sharp editing during the jet ski scene in which some audio was pulled in from elsewhere to apparently make the scene look more dramatic.

The film, showing on the minority Bravo channel in the UK with just some 100,000 plus viewers, has apparently caused quite some controversy including threats to arrest the Thai fixers and a meeting between the London producers and the Thai Ambassador in London.

Actually personally I found it quite a true reflection on life in certain tourist areas in Thailand though of course it cannot speak from a very high moral plain because of some careless edits, and all the bells, whistles, repetitions, clanging prison doors etc. Lets face it its a film for chavs but it has entertained many of us especially as the chav narrator kept going on about Foo-ket and Patt-aye-ya.

As no foreigner is going to apologise for the jet ski stuff I now take it upon myself to apportion blame where of course it is truly deserved and apologise on everyone’s behalf.

“Dear Sir,
As a journalist based in Thailand I feel it is my duty to apologise for the wrong assumptions and unfair media treatment Thailand received this year over an incident involving a ‘damaged’ jet-ski, the Royal Marines and a very respectable businessmen called JJ.

Just a toy. That's so bloody obvious

Contrary to reports overseas, the jet ski hirer Marine Jack Tebbott, 21, was in fact so mortified about damaging the jet ski in question that he walked three miles to the jet-ski owners private premises to apologise and was not, as some reports suggest, taken there against his own will.
In addition he called his friends in the Royal Marines to help him with the apology as he thought a group apology would be better and carry far more weight.
He admitted many times that he was guilty even though he rather thought, that as the damage was to the side of the boat, his left leg might have noticed.
He even called in his boss in the Marine Police, Sergeant Tim Wright to apologise too.
The man known as JJ had described on camera how he dealt with foreigners who did not pay up. But this gesture of slapping his fist into his hand could not in any way be interpreted as an indication of physical violence. In any case knowing how journalists operate it was probably taken from his cookery programme in which he demonstrates how to grind spices for tom yam kung.

Playful banter. Tim and JJ sharing a joke as Marine Jack Tebbott chuckles in the background

Indeed it is quite clear from the documentary ‘Big Trouble in Thailand’, that footage which showed Marines and JJ laughing and joking and making small talk was in fact substituted with audio suggesting that they were alarmed when JJ produced what was obviously a toy gun. What pussycats! Further what was not explained in the programme is that JJ said that his bosses do not like him using guns as they are the guys who actually do.
Clearly the sound track which was not translated for the British audience, and which appeared to show JJ saying to himself : “These motherfuckers not (going to) mess with me’ must have come from a totally different incident , also his reference to the Marines as ‘mun’ (jerks in this context).
There clearly is a cut in the film during the gun scene which makes things suspicious. I am sure it cannot be because of the feeble excuse that JJ told the crew not to film either of the other two guns in his armoury.
There is of course a sequence which shows some swearing between the Marine Police Sergeant and JJ. This friendly banter has of course been wildly distorted.
There was a sequence in the film which also shows JJ saying that if the stain on the fibre glass is brown – then the damage is old.
Sergeant Wright pointed out that the stain in this case was also brown. But it was decided by mutual agreement that in this case the brown meant that it was new damage.
Marine Jack was more than happy to pay out 35,000 Thai baht in damages and Tim and JJ were so happy that they settled in a spirit of warm conviviality and can clearly be seen shaking hands.
In fact one Marine was so deliriously happy that he had to be held back by his comrades from giving JJ a Glasgow kiss.

Why were JJ's men not allowed to wear their suits?

Marine Sergeant Wright is not as JJ says, his father, pa, or dad, and JJ is indeed a normal person and a businessman. I am also appalled at the cutaways to JJ’s colleagues covered all over with tattoos and being made to look menacing. So why did the filmmakers not give them the opportunity to look as smart as Sergeant Wright?

But no! These film companies, who are obviously out to trash Thailand, do not show these sort of things do they! Good news is not news is it!

Jet ski operators Phuket happily agree to massive discounts or something else at Phuketwan

Two policemen arrived at the same time as Sergeant Tim Wright and of course had anything untoward happened they would have done something.
In fact when JJ is negotiating he says his uncle is the local police chief, showing that he is indeed an upstanding citizen, I believe they even joined in a chorus together with Marine Jack in: “We are men. We are men. We are not ladyboys. We are not katoeys. We don’t run.”
To be quite frank, as Sergeant Wright has pointed out, Royal Marines were involved in five other jet ski incidents in June in two days in Patong Beach, Phuket, and had to pay damages on each occasion.
This quite clearly shows that these guys know nothing at all about boats and watercraft. They should not be allowed out to sea at all!

Sergeant Wright is mistaken when he refers accidentally to the jet ski operator as a ‘two bit low-life’. Either that or this was taken from another section when he was talking about the cameraman.

Thailand has lots of lovely beaches - and jet skis

In fact jet-skis are really quite sophisticated machines which should not really put in the hands of foreigners.

Due to their lack of sklls under Thai law foreigners are not allowed to operate any vessel, powered or sail, based in Thailand without an authorised Thai Captain looking over their shoulder.

Proof is in the fact that between December and April this year in Chaweng Beach, Koh Samui, over 150 foreigners, operating without Thai Captains, had to pay up for damages.

In conclusion the Thai Film Board, Tourism Authority etc, Channel 3 and the Bangkok Post are all quite right in their assumptions. Anybody Thai who had a hand in the making of ‘Big Trouble in Thailand’ and did not collude in showing a favourable image to the country should be brought to trial.
And JJ, who had no history of firearms offences ( well apart from an incident three day before the Marines arrived ) should therefore receive an apology from the producers forthwith.
PS: The 500 baht taxi fare from Kalim to Patong is a very good deal by the way. Why are all these foreigners complaining. They’re all rich are they not?

Disrespecting Thai culture. Foreigners in lock up after Full Moon party on Koh Phangnan

May I take this opportunity to also apologise for the outrageous slur made against the police in Koh Phangan who it was alleged ( well it was not, but the Police Chief in Koh Phagnan says it was) profiteered monthly from the drugs arrests at the Full Moon Parties. These people are disrespecting Thai culture by bringing their drugs culture to this small island. It is up to the Thai police to use the full powers of the law to eradicate this problem. Nevertheless people have been treated with leniency and mercy. I would like to point out the girl in question got bail ( as they always do) and went to court (as everybody does) and received due justice and mercy in Thailand. This had nothing to do with the cameras being present. It would be outrageous to suggest that all the other people paid themselves off with figures up to and over 60,000 baht on pain of going to jail, and this was the only druggie the filmmaker could find, who had to go through the process as she could not scrape the bribe together.

Ruining Thai culture. Restaurant menu on Haad Rin beach Koh Phangnan

Acknowledgement: With thanks to the painstaking research by Talen and Thailandlandofsmiles.com

However it appears that neither Marine Sergeant Tim Page nor Gavin Hill agree with my researcher Talen, who has been digging deep from his huts in Nakon Phanom and Mukdahan and I suppose in the interests of fairness I have to reprint these letters to him.

Marine Police Sergeant Tim Wright

Police did ’sweet fanny Adam’

From Marine Police Sergeant Tim Wright, 40 Commando, Taunton, Somerset

Talen

I have just found this site (www.thailandlandofsmiles.com) and as you seem to have taken an aversion to my methods let me put you in the picture about the incident, which I see Gavin Hill has already commented on.

I was called to the scene, one of numerous similar incidents I had been called to that week, and had been informed that a gun had been pulled on a group of Royal Marines by a local ‘business man’! It was not my intent on arrival at a scene to allow that weapon or any other to be drawn again. As for not calling the local police, they were there, I didn’t have to, my Thai colleagues had called them and they sat around doing nothing, just waiting for the money to be handed over and for us to leave. If the lad had not already made a deal with JJ, I would have removed them from the scene and told him to take him to court. He would not have done because he knew it was a scam.

This onging corruption and criminality spoils a beautiful country and a very generous and loving people. I saw many tourists being scammed by the jet ski hire people, it is something I would warn anybody visiting Thailand against doing, along with motorbike hire, drugs and ladyboys.

The whole visit to Phuket was marred for many of the young me and women I was policing by such scams, and it would be far more productive for you to try and remove that blight from your golden beaches than to insult law abiding tourists who bring much needed foreign currency to your country.

I am an honourable man and I would like an apology for your comments about me. To insult me as you have and caste doubts as to my character and professionalism deeply saddens me I can only hope you never fall foul of a similar con.

your aye

Tim
And this from Gavin Hill, formerly of Bravo Productions

Hi Talen –
So, you cracked the case hey? Solved the mystery?
With quite a bit of help along the way from the trustyswordoftruth it would appear
Mike’s correct in saying neither Tim nor I needed to respond to you, and I think you have been unnecessarily adversarial and impolite, given our contribution to your blog.
I think you have been confused as to who the ‘enemy’ is at times.
You do owe Tim an apology. He was acting in the very best interests of his men and very bravely. Some of your comments do suggest naivete as to the way things work on the ground in situations like this – in Thailand and many other places too for that matter.
I know you’ll get very defensive about this, but it would be magnanimous of you if you did.
Vera Productions are threatening to sue – they don’t like the release of any footage which shows how they doctored sound which contributed to a man’s arrest and imprisonment.
Now, whoever uploaded that video to You Tube did so in the public interest – because I would imagine they believe in professionalism, balance and fairness, that factual entertainment shouldn’t be at the expense of factual accuracy.
I would imagine they also believe that their credibility and that of the series is compromised by factual inaccuracy, attempts at fabrication, misleading information (288 Brits “killed” last year in Thailand) and the unnecessary dramatisation of very real events, such as JJ and the Marines. Mispronunciation of place names is just pathetic.
But I expect they felt powerless to do anything about it in the face of rampant sensationalism, disregard for old fashioned journalistic values and threatened legal might.
The fact remains, however it was (mis)represented by Vera Productions/Virgin Media, that JJ introduced a gun into a very tense situation (the audio over the gun shots came from a scuffle between JJ and one of the Marines that wasn’t cut into the broadcast programme, but should have been). The gun was threatening, although I don’t believe the line of v/o should have said that.
As the creator, producer, director and cameraman of ‘Big Trouble In Thailand’ but with little or no input into the editing process my misgivings, or should I say fury, began when Virgin Media at the last minute changed the working title ‘Thai Cops’ to ‘Big Trouble In Tourist Thailand’. I complained – in the strongest possible terms – that this would be a slap in the face of the Thai authorities who so kindly gave me such unrivaled and unique access. If I’d said we were making ‘Big Trouble In Tourist Thailand’ I seriously doubt we would have been permitted to do what we did. Had the title not been so provocative – personally I saw it as an attack on Thailand’s tourism industry – and had the JJ scenes been edited in a more balanced manner (as had been the case in the rough cut I was sent to look at) then I think the series would have received less adverse attention and certainly attracted less controversy. I might not be facing arrest and imprisonment there. After all, it is only a very minor series being watched largely by young males who amount to the population of a small english town – at most.
But … yes, then there is You Tube which does make a difference these days.
But people have got a bit carried away nevertheless.
Me? I’m just a stickler for truth insofar as it’s possible to tell it, and getting the balance right. Thai Cops was also my idea and it had enormous potential. It was a tricky proposition, I’ll admit, but everything was going swimmingly until the content we’d gathered in the field was handed over to Vera Productions in London. Everyone was on board – from JJ and the Marines to the Thai police and prison authorities.
Regardless of what anyone might think of JJ, there was absolutely no justification for faking the audio.
Though I was not responsible for doing so, I do apologise to the viewers that my idea for a highly-watchable Thai police series came to this.
I think it’s about time that reality TV got its house in order and production companies opened a dictionary and looked up the world “integrity”. This way we who work in the industry, in this genre, can hold our heads high in the knowledge we’re not disrespecting the TV viewer who would, I’m sure, like to believe that reality TV can either be trusted, or if not, carry a warning in the way cigarette packets do – along the lines of your summation Talen … don’t believe all you see or hear.
So the truth was out there, wasn’t it?

Talen at ThailandLandof Smiles has as usual demanded the last word.

So you, tabloid scum, think you are a journalist, Tim thinks he is something big in the military and Gavin thinks he is some swanky film producer. You can all argue until to are blue in the face but I can tell you I work on facts gleaned from some 150 hours watching and re-watching the videos, and by nicking stuff off other blogs and quoting them out of context to make my site look better!

You tell you I know nothing, but let me tell You I know f*ck all! Did you like my blog on Mukdahan by the way. Freudian eh. Me pretending to look for a whore but only finding this woman’s luscious dim sum. Bet that had you in a sweat! (enough now Ed).

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

Published

Andrew Drummond

on September 21, 2009

in General News

. 22 Comments

From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok,
September 20 2009

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

Marine Tebbott, JJ, and producer cameraman Gavin Hill

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

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

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

Filming with Thai Tourist Police in Phuket

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

Royal Marine Joe Townsend

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

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

Karen Elephant Patrol -Andrew Drummond. See comments below

Foreigner arrested after ‘Big Trouble in Thailand’ documentary

Published

Andrew Drummond

on September 17, 2009

in The Times

. 19 Comments

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

From Andrew Drummond, Bangkok, September 17th

Lance Shaw's passport

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

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

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

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

Published

Andrew Drummond

on September 13, 2009

in The Times

. 40 Comments

USS Boxer - US Navy Jon Rasmussen

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

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

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

Pay out

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

With police in attendance JJ prepares his bill

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

No protest

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

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

Bt40,000 worth of damage

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

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

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

Next stop the gangplank?

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

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

Published

Andrew Drummond

on September 12, 2009

in General News

. 23 Comments

(More rushes from ‘Big Trouble in Thailand)

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

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

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

Royal Marine Police Sergeant Wright (right) confronts JJ

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

Marine Sergeant Tim Wright

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

Marine Jack Tebbott

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

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

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

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

Gavin Hill - hung out to dry?

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

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

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

JJ's boys look on

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

Published

Andrew Drummond

on September 11, 2009

in General News

. 22 Comments

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

Royal Marine Police Sergeant Wright confronts JJ

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Published

Andrew Drummond

on September 7, 2009

in General News

. 47 Comments

Picture special:
by Andrew Drummond, Bangkok

Pictures: Andy Chant/Gavin Hill/Vera Productions

Royal Marine Face-off

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

I gotta get me a gun

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

Marine Jack Tebbott

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

No nonsense Marine Sgt Tim Wright

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

Marine policeman Mat Turner

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

Face off Royal Marine Police Sergeant Wright and JJ

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

But how do we feed our families?

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

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

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

Big Trouble in Tourist Thailand

The last time Royal Marines had a fight in Phuket

Foreign Tourist Police Volunteers Exposed

Published

Andrew Drummond

on September 4, 2009

in General News

. 25 Comments

howardmillerbv

Big Trouble in Thailand - Bravo Channel UK

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

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

Picture above: Howard Miller/Bravo

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

Gavin Hill undercover in Pattaya

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

HMS Bulwark

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Andrew Drummond