Foreign Posse Rides In to Clean Up Pattaya Woes

 But can THIS posse help?!

The flying sporran on a Pattaya showdown

September 17 2012

Woke up today to start a bright new week, fresh from a good weekend in court in Pattaya, to find in the Bangkok Post a wonderfully confusing story.

It involves a rag-tag army of expats in Pattaya meeting with officers of the Crime Suppression Division in a bid to clean up the city.

How the Bangkok Post reported the meeting with the ‘Foreigners Network’

Well actually I did not so much find it but was directed to it. My phone was buzzing from 8 am. Emails were coming in, in protest.
The story seemed harmless enough – although I did not really understand it.  People were complaining that the Bangok Post were killing their replies.

Why the protest?

Apparently there is a new network of foreigners in Pattaya determined to clean up the city. They seem to be called the ‘Foreigners Network’.

“Twelve of the network’s 15 members, mostly business figures, met Crime Suppression Division (CSD) officers recently to discuss what one of them called the “cancerous” crime levels in the resort town,” the Bangkok Post reported.
“Pattaya has struggled to shake off its image of crime and vice, much of which comes from foreign mafia groups based there”.

Well true enough. But what happened to the other three. And what is this group?  Is it taking over from the Pattaya Expats Club, the Pattaya City Expats Club etc. Isn’t that what they are there for?

But then somewhere along the line foreigners appeared to be responsible for the jet ski scams in the resort
This is confirmed by a jet-ski operator.

The Bangkok Post reported: Charun Pongwuthitham, a 48-year-old jet ski operator who has run his business for more than 10 years, said he agreed with the foreign community’s participation in helping to curb crime in Pattaya.

Mr Charun claimed some foreigners collaborated with jet ski operators in extorting money from the tourists.”

Well it would certainly make sense, from what I saw in Pattaya, that some down and out foreigners are even making a living driving business to jet ski extortionists on a commission basis, but I am not swallowing the line that foreigners are behind the extortions.

But let’s wait and see. The Russians do tend to get everywhere.’

So who comprises this motley group of expat businessmen?

The Bangkok Post reports: “The establishment of the foreigners’ network is a good idea”, said 64-year-old businessman Niels Colon, who participated in the talk with police.

“It will encourage direct talks over problems and could lead to clear solutions, he said.

“Pattaya has many problems. There is still a language barrier between the police and foreigners. It is good that the police are now paying attention to these problems,” he said.

Colon? That’s an unfortunate name. But now I think I get it.

Could this be a Danish businessman called Niels Colov, of the Pattaya People Media Group, who has  announced that he is assisting Pattaya former publisher Drew Noyes (above), whom, he believes, will be released from charges due in Pattaya Court of attempting to extort another Pattaya businessman out of 7 million baht!  (Noyes says he has now resigned from the Pattaya Times)

Surely not. The sub-editors on the Bangkok Post must check all names on stories, particularly one that translates as a part of one’s anatomy, which by its nature is full of  ‘sh*t’.

Nevertheless he looks familiar and very similar t0 the Bangkok Post’s Colon’.

With Danish career criminals Lone Fristrup Jensen and Leon Owild

Could this be the same man who before his arrival in Thailand was sentenced to a term of jail in Denmark for pimping, violence, and handling stolen property?

Could this be the same man who includes Denmark’s most notorious gangsters (above)  amongst his friends?

Some mistake surely.
Drew Noyes andColov in a meeting at Pattaya City Hall
Besides we already know what Drew Noyes, who claims on the net to be an advisor to the Mayor, did when he managed to convince Mr. Colov to get him a meeting with the head of the Crime Suppression in Bangkok.  Noyes got the date through Colov’s friend Edward Kiti of Elite Models.

He exchanged a few pleasantries with the CSD chief,and then invented an interview in which the head of the CSD was reported as saying he hunting down Andrew Drummond and was going to close down this site!

 ‘The Supreme Commander of Thailand’s most powerful police division, the Crime Suppression Police, has ordered the Cyber Crimes Division and the Information and the Technology Commission (ITC) to assist the Royal Thai Police in Pattaya and Bangkok, saying, ‘This is a very prominent foreigner in Thailand that this website is lying about for no reason except to hurt his reputation so close it down and catch the people responsible – Pattaya Times.’

 Wonder who that prominent foreigner was?

I only ask about the ‘Foreigners Network ‘because one of my correspondents wrote in to say: “Please could you make it clear that this group does not represent the expatriates of Pattaya I know and certainly not me”.
Malcolm Leggett in rice paddy

Briton Malcolm Leggett claims that after going to Colov for advice he lost over 3.8 million habit.  He was having problems with his wife and had sought Colov’s advice in his role of President of the Pattaya Expats Club.

That’s the amount he said he handed over to Colov’s partner and mother of his children, Laddawan Yingyong (Editor of the Pattaya People) on advice that he should hide it from his wife and invest in a money lending business. Seems it was an investment in her. She can’t remember who she lent the money to.

“Í can’t believe what I’m reading in the Bangkok Post,” he said. “I want my money back.” (Not from the Bangkok Post))

Yes. It appears Colon and Colov are one and the same.  But the new version has reformed and is a Buddhist vegetarian.

Done. Malcolm

(Malcolm who came as a millionaire ended up working a rice paddy (not for payment) just for a roof.