Want a visa to Thailand – BOYO?

Andrew Drummond | Jul 19, 2012

Briton Sean Tinsley, who was recently arrested returning from Britain and charged in connection with the attack on English school teacher Adam Pickles in Pattaya, said today he would like to tell his side of the story. 

But he said he needed time to clear up personal matters.

The boss of ‘The Visa Shop’ in Soi Bhukao, Pattaya, has now been released on bail. He did not specify the amount. Enquiries are continuing.

Tinsley who was arrested in 2007 on visa charges left Thailand shortly after the attack on Adam Pickles, from Leeds, Yorkshire, is now back at work.

The attack on Adam Pickles caused a public furore in Pattaya.  He was a popular teacher and Head of English at the International School of the Regents in Pattaya. Now he remains in a coma in Leeds General Hospital in Yorkshire.

He was allegedly attacked by Tinsley after allegedly scraping his car while getting out of a parking spot opposite a bar in what is locally known as ‘The Dark Side’.

Adam Pickles

Friends of Adam, who have seen the medical reports, believe that Adam was attacked with a very hard object like a car’s wheel brace, because a sizeable chunk of his skull was removed and was sent to Britain in a medical container along with Adam, when he was medivac’d.

A file from a CCTV, on which much of the case seems to balance,  appears to show Tinsley following Adam and then coming back less than ten minutes later apparently re-enacting an attack on someone. Tinsley is previously known to have had ‘very good relations’ with police and immigration police. His was one of the first ‘Visa Shops’ in Pattaya but now there is a plethora of them.

Several of his clients were arrested and had to pay ‘heavy fines’ of 200,000 baht each after they bought visas off Tinsley in and around 2007.  Passports were initially sent to Phuket for stamping.

Later Tinsley allegedly switched his operations and started sending passports to the Thai Consul in Cardiff – A jovial singing Welshman – who seemed to stamp anything and everything.

These passports were then sent back to Pattaya. However the visas were useless as the holders of the passports did not contain entry stamps to Thailand, which is what finally authorises visas issued abroad.

When the holders started leaving the country they began being picked up at the airport by Immigration police who naturally wondered where they came from.

How Tinsley managed to deal in these visas s at 30,000 baht a pop shows a remarkable degree of ‘salesmanship’.

But although consular officials, who had to deal with the resultant fall out, were not amused, no action was taken by the British Embassy.

There are mixed reactions in Pattaya.  Tinsley’s friends say Tinsley is an amiable man who helps out Brits in distress in Pattaya.

In some forums and on comments on this site people viciosuly disagree. Little attention need to be paid to comments written by people with nom de plumes.

His release on bail however suggests he is no longer on a charge of attempted murder. This is of some concern to Pickles’ parents in Yorkshire who are considering suing Tinsley for damages.

They have had to mortgage their house to help pay the bills despite very successful appeals in Pattaya and back home which raised over £70,000. Initially they congratulated Banglamuang Police on a job well done.