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Andrew Drummond

APPEAL COURT CONFIRMS EXTORTION CONVICTION FOR ‘ADVISER TO MAYOR’ OF THAI SEX RESORT

BUT DREW NOYES CONVICTION OFFERS SCANT HOPE FOR FOREIGNERS CHEATED IN PATTAYA



The Thai Appeal Court today confirmed the conviction of Drew Noyes – a fake lawyer and self-appointed foreign adviser to the Mayor of the Thai sex tourism resort of Pattaya on a charge of extortion.

The 60-year-old from Wilmington, North Carolina, failed to turn up for the hearing as he had promised – but this was also expected.

Arrest warrants had been issued for him and his alleged partner in crime Wanrapa Boonsu. But the Appeal court dismissed the case against her.

Both the prosecutor and victim Michael Goulet co-owner of the Thonglor Clinic in Jomtien immediately announced they were appealing the appeal court’s verdict against Wanrapa Boonsu and sentence against Noyes of 2 years jail reduced by the appeal court to 16 months.

Police had witnessed a phone call from Wanrapa Boonsu demanding that Goulet pay up or she could not stop a police raid on his premises.

Noyes and Boonsu, 39, were accused of attempting to extort 7 million Thai baht (US$198,984) Thai out of Goulet and his partner or their business would be raided, illegal substances would be found and the clinic would face damning publicity in their newspaper the Pattaya Times.

From North Carolina Noyes’ continues to advertise his legal expertise and services to customers in Pattaya through his One Stop Service Center in Pattaya.

He was accused by customers who complained to this site that he had cheated them by putting their property in his name, screwed up divorce settlements, defrauded them in illegal fees, banked divorce settlements in his own account, employed illegal Filipina labour and sexually abused them, and sold phony shares in his newspaper.

But prior to arriving in Thailand he had been exposed in the Star newspaper in Wilmington, North Carolina, of creating a biography which was a ‘myriad of lies’, sexual harassment by demanding oral sex from a female employee for extra hours, and share and property fraud.

Since the military take-over Noyes has been promoting himself more than ever as an ardent royalist and devotee of Thaland’s ailing King Bhumipol Adulyadej.

Currently Thailand’s military government have been reported to have ordered Pattaya City Council to step down on June 16th when a council of members elected by the military will take over the role of governing the wayward resort – the scene of multiple uninvestigated property frauds committed against foreigners tempted by condo deals in the resort.

Drew Noyes had taken multiple SLAP cases against the owner of this site. Those cases have been brought to an end by the Appeal Court decision. Similarly cases brought by Scot Brian Goudie, 49,born Brian Goldie in Falkirk, who was also exposed on this site as a fake lawyer, have also come to an end.

Goudie is currently on the run. He has been convicted of fraud and embezzlement and an arrest warrant has been issued for his arrest,
The author, Andrew Drummond, left Thailand last year, not as a result of the SLAP cases but as a result of threats from Bangkok boiler room fraudsters who had been laundering money through banks in Hong Kong, the British Virgin Islands and Panama.

Drew Walter Noyes – The Real Bio

Drew Walter Noyes quietly slipped in to Thailand after being exposed in 1995 by Scott Gold in the Wilmington Morning Star, as it was then known, in North Carolina, under the headline Trouble Follows Developer. He remained quiet for two years running beers bars called the Zebra and Lollipop making his money out of Thai prostitutes and selling booze to tourists. He had a ‘short time room’ attached to one of his bars.

It was while being accused of being cheated by a Briton who had bought one of his bars that he first threatened to sue for libel and the purchaser fled.

From the Pattaya Mail

He then helped form the Pattaya City Expats Club where he announced that he had been invited by Royal Proclamation to help out the country during the financial crisis of the late 90s. He claimed he worked for the Bank of Thailand, and a lavish self-written biography started appearing all over the net. 
One of the most comprehensive was on the Naymz site. By this time he had married an illiterate bar girl called Nittaya Chaiyasit.

He also announced that he was a lawyer and owner of the law firm PAPPA which was not registered as a law firm but as accountancy. 

He then made cash by convincing foreigners he was ‘ the most credible re-assuring American professional in Thailand’ to part with their cash for his services in court cases, buying houses, and divorce settlements. Soon many were complaining.

Colov with Noyes behind

He set up the Pattaya Times newspaper in opposition to Niels Colov, the former Copenhagen pimp and gangster, and head of the Pattaya Police Foreign Volunteers, who was also using his Pattaya People newspaper and an expats club to bring business his way.

Both men had promoted a ‘We Love Pattaya’ and ‘We Love the Thai People ‘ rhetoric to convince the authorities they were kosher and offered the authorities as much space as they wanted in their newspapers for PR purposes.

Both had a public fall out accusing each other in their newspapers of fraud and beating their wives but the row was becoming self-defeating and they agreed to a peace, allowing each other to continue with their various cons. These were mainly connected with property deals.

But Noyes came to our attention when his name came to light as the man representing American porno film makers who were being arrested in Thailand for cheating bar girls – and of course making illegal (in Thailand) porno movies, with the endless supply of naïve country girls available for US$50 a pop.

Tony Power at his arrest – but the case like all other arrests of pornographers disappeared from the system

One such pornographer Tony Poer faced demand in excess of US$200,000 from Noyes for charges to be dropped. He went direct to police and managed a deal at 1/10th of that price.

We also caught Noyes attempting to buy a home from a British pensioner after putting the news in his newspaper that the Thai government would confiscate properties held by foreigners in dormant company names.

The Thai authorities did not care about Noyes activities and he continued to befriend local politicians, police, and immigration authorities writing eulogies about them in his newspapers.

Noyes and Brian Wright trawled bars together

He started a Pattaya Branch of Optimists International and its founding members included now convicted paedophile Brian Wright, from Rhode Island, and three American and one British boiler room operators from Bangkok. Optimists of course are dedicated to helping children.

By this time complaints were flowing in about his cons at Pappa Law, which with Wanrapa Boonsu, he morphed into the One Stop (Legal) Service Centre also with the website pattaylawyers.com.

But Noyes struck back threatening all and sundry under Thailand’s libel and Computer Crime Act laws and using his newspaper to expose his enemies. One such person a producer of children’s films in Holland he described as a ‘porno film maker’….and so it went on.

Noyes and  Wanrapa Dining with Pattaya judges

He even held a Legal seminar in Pattaya with the judges of the Pattaya court and recruited the local court interpreter as one of his aides. He dined out with judges and of course eulogized their work.
Most people in Pattaya knew what he was – but they were scared of saying anything for fear they might be his next target.

It was his arrest in March 2012 that was his final undoing. But it has taken four years to bring him to justice of sorts. 

As soon as he started demanding cash from Thonglor Clinic Dr. Michael Goulet called in his Thai partner who called in local police. A sting was set up and Noyes and Wanrapa were recorded as they made their threats. However when it came to the time to pick up the first instalment of cash at the News Restaurant in Pattaya, Wanrapa was not there. And this may account as to why she wriggled off the charge.

Noyes claimed he was a victim of a conspiracy. Then he claimed that the money was for advertising in the Pattaya Times. Goulet had no intention of publishing a newspaper which had no distribution and of which copies could only be found at city hall or the local immigration office.

Hanks – facelift

Goulet told the court that Scot David John Hanks, 67. from Girvan, was also part of the conspiracy. The former owner of Masquerades Brothel in Melbourne had turned up at his clinic a week before the extortion attempt for a face lift.

Afterwards he told Goulet that he was connected to the Chinese mafia and his boss Noyes wanted to see him about conducting business in Pattaya.

Noyes quit Thailand while on bail taking with him five children of ten he had fathered in Thailand. He took three children from his first Thai wife Nittaya, two out of three children by Wanrapa, but left the womemn one child each. He also left two children, one born to a member of staff at One Stop Service Center, one one reported to be by the niece of his wife Nittaya.  Last month he announced the birth of another child by his former nanny.

The Noyes story is just another story of a con man in Pattaya. It is more damning for the Thai authorities in this mafia run resort who have made it clear they offer no protection to tourists and foreign expats in the sleazy resort..

About the Author

Andrew Drummond

Andrew Drummond is a British independent journalist and occasional television documentary maker. He is a former Fleet Street, London, journalist having worked at the Evening Standard, Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, News of the World, Observer and The Times.

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