British couple fights Bangkok airport extortionists
British Tourists Fight Bangkok Airport Mafia
British couple fights Bangkok airport extortionists
Two tourists were held by an airport gang until they paid up £8,000
Stephen Ingram and Xi Lin were falsely accused
of stealing from a shop at Bangkok airport.
A British couple who were falsely accused of shoplifting in Bangkok airport and were forced to pay £8,000 in bribes to secure their release are to take legal action for compensation.
They were the victims of an extortion racket that has ensnared other foreign travellers at the airport, which handles most of the 800,000 British visitors to Thailand every year.
Stephen Ingram, 49, and Xi Lin, 45, both technology professionals from Cambridge, were detained by security guards as they went to board Qantas flight QF1 to London on the night of Saturday, April 25.
They were accused of taking a Givenchy wallet worth £121 from a King Power duty-free shop and were handed over to the police. An official release order from the local Thai prosecutor’s office subsequently conceded there was no evidence against them.
They were freed five days later after a frightening ordeal in which they said they were threatened and held against their will at a cheap motel on the airport perimeter until they had handed over the money.
The bribes were paid to an intermediary named Sunil “Tony” Rathnayaka, a Sri Lankan national in his fifties who works as a “volunteer” interpreter for Thailand’s tourist police (motto: “To serve and to protect”).
“Our main motivation is to protect other innocent British tourists from being caught up in this nightmare,” said Ingram last week. “We intend to take every legal means to recover our money and obtain justice.”
Last week Rathnayaka admitted in a telephone interview that he had received cash and money transfers amounting to more than £7,000 from the Britons. He said the money was for police bail and for a payment to a figure he called “Little Big Man” who could withdraw the case against them.
“In Thailand everyone knows it’s like that,” he said. “They can go to jail or they can just pay a fine and go home. It is corruption, you know?”
Rathnayaka also agreed that the “bail” — about £4,000 — was never returned to Ingram and Xi. Thai law says bail should be refunded.
In a detailed statement the couple said they were first detained at an airport office of the tourist police and later taken to cells at a police station in an isolated modern building on the fringes of the airport.
Rathnayaka confirmed that he met them in the cells on the morning of Sunday, April 26, and arranged the “bail”. The police kept the couple’s passports. Rathnayaka then escorted Ingram and Xi to the Valentine Resort, a lurid pink motel a few hundred yards from the runways. They were to remain there for four days.
During that time, Rathnayaka warned them not to tell anyone about their plight, especially the British embassy, lawyers, friends, family or the press.
However, on April 27 they sneaked out of the hotel and found their way to the embassy, where they met Kate Dufall, the pro-consul.
According to the couple, she told them the embassy could not interfere with the Thai legal system and put them in contact with Prachaya Vijitpokin, a lawyer.
Vijitpokin and a colleague, Kittamert Engchountada, of the Lawyers Association of Thailand, urged them to stay in the country to fight the case and have since assembled a dossier for potential prosecutions.
However, Ingram said the couple were so terrified by this stage that they decided to meet the demands for money, which they raised by bank transfers from Britain direct to Rathnayaka’s account. The Sunday Times has copies of the transactions.
Ingram and Xi were put on a British Airways flight to London early on Friday, May 1, having received their passports with official documents from prosecutors and police stating that no charges were to be brought against them.
They have said they are willing to return to Thailand and testify to try to stop the extortion if the government will guarantee their safety.
That could become a priority for Thailand, which has suffered a series of blows to its tourist industry through economic and political upheaval.
Inquiries last week established that Rathnayaka and his accomplices have continued preying on tourists who end up in police custody after being accused of theft from the airport duty-free shop. “I am just helping people,” he explained. “I don’t get paid to do this. All the embassies know me.”
Officials at the Danish embassy confirmed that a Danish woman fell into Rathnayaka’s hands about two weeks ago and was allowed to leave Thailand only after handing over more than £4,500.
When a Sunday Times journalist posing as a businessman in trouble contacted Rathnayaka last week, the first thing he said was: “If it’s a case, for example, of shoplifting at the airport duty-free then I can help. Bail is 100,000 baht (£1,800).” He later declined an interview, saying the Sri Lanka embassy — which employs him as an interpreter — had told him not to speak.
The Foreign Office said consular officials had offered to raise the case with the Thai authorities at the time but had been asked by the couple not to intervene.
A spokesman for King Power duty-free said the company had strict rules for evidence to be submitted to the police in shoplifting cases, but added: “We cannot control what happens after that.”
Tourists warned of Thailand airport scam
Bangkok airport duty free
BANGKOK: — Bangkok’s showcase new international airport is no stranger to controversy.
Built between 2002 and 2006, under the governments of then-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the opening date was repeatedly delayed.
It has been dogged by allegations of corruption, as well as criticism of the design and poor quality of construction.
Then, at the end of last year, the airport was shut down for a week after being occupied by anti-government protesters.
Now new allegations have been made that a number of passengers are being detained every month in the duty free area on suspicion of shoplifting, and then held by the police until they pay large sums of money to buy their freedom.
That is what happened to Stephen Ingram and Xi Lin, two IT experts from Cambridge, as they were about to board their flight to London on the night of 25 April this year.
They had been browsing in the duty free shop at the airport, and were later approached by security guards, who twice asked to search their bags.
Stephen Ingram and Xi Lin
Mr Ingram and Ms Xi were told they had to pay £7,500
They were told a wallet had gone missing, and that Ms Lin had been seen on a security camera taking it out of the shop.
The company that owns the duty free shop, King Power, has since put the CCTV video on its website, which does appear to show her putting something in her bag. However the security guards found no wallet on either of them.
Despite that, they were both taken from the departure gate, back through immigration, and held in an airport police office. That is when their ordeal started to become frightening.
Interpreter
“We were questioned in separate rooms,” Mr Ingram said. “We felt really intimidated. They went through our bags and demanded that we tell them where the wallet was.”
The two were then put in what Mr Ingram describes as a “hot, humid, smelly cell with graffiti and blood on the walls”.
Mr Ingram managed to phone a Foreign Office helpline he found in a travel guide, and was told someone in the Bangkok embassy would try to help them.
The next morning the two were given an interpreter, a Sri Lankan national called Tony, who works part-time for the police.
They were taken by Tony to meet the local police commander – but, says Mr Ingram, for three hours all they discussed was how much money they would have to pay to get out.
police station
Mr Ingram and Ms Xi were taken to meet the local police commander
They were told the charge was very serious. If they did not pay, they would be transferred to the infamous Bangkok Hilton prison, and would have to wait two months for their case to be processed.
Mr Ingram says they wanted £7,500 ($12,250) – for that the police would try to get him back to the UK in time for his mother’s funeral on 28 April.
But he could not arrange to get that much money transferred in time.
‘Zig-zag’ scheme
Tony then took them to an ATM machine at the police station, and told Ms Lin to withdraw as much as she could from her own account – £600 – and Mr Ingram then withdrew the equivalent of £3,400 from his account.
This was apparently handed over to the police as “bail”, and they were both made to sign a number of papers.
Later they were allowed to move to a squalid hotel within the airport perimeter, but their passports were held and they were warned not to leave or try to contact a lawyer or their embassy.
“I will be watching you,” Tony told them, adding that they would have to stay there until the £7,500 was transferred into Tony’s account.
On the Monday they managed to sneak out and get a taxi to Bangkok, and met an official at the British Embassy.
She gave the name of a Thai lawyer, and, says Mr Ingram, told them they were being subjected to a classic Thai scam called the “zig-zag”.
Their lawyer urged them to expose Tony – but also warned them that if they fought the case it could take months, and they risked a long prison sentence.
After five days the money was transferred to Tony’s account, and they were allowed to leave.
Mr Ingram had missed his mother’s funeral, but at least they were given a court document stating that there was insufficient evidence against them, and no charge.
“It was a harrowing, stressful experience,” he said.
The couple say they now want to take legal action to recover their money.
‘Typical’ scam
The BBC has spoken to Tony and the regional police commander, Colonel Teeradej Phanuphan.
They both say Tony was merely helping the couple with translation, and raising bail to keep them out of prison.
Tony says about half the £7,500 was for bail, while the rest were “fees” for the bail, for his work, and for a lawyer he says he consulted on their behalf.
In theory, he says, they could try to get the bail portion refunded.
Colonel Teeradej says he will investigate any possible irregularities in their treatment. But he said any arrangement between the couple and Tony was a private affair, which did not involve the police.
Letters of complaint to the papers here in Thailand make it clear that passengers are regularly detained at the airport for alleged shoplifting, and then made to pay middlemen to win their freedom.
The Danish Embassy says one of its nationals was recently subjected to a very similar scam, and earlier this month an Irish scientist managed to flee Thailand with her husband and one year-old son after being arrested at the airport and accused of stealing an eyeliner worth around £17.
Tony told the BBC that so far this year he has “helped” about 150 foreigners in trouble with the police. He says sometimes he does it for no charge.
The British Embassy has also warned passengers at Bangkok Airport to take care not to move items around in the duty free shopping area before paying for them, as this could result in arrest and imprisonment.
Now the danish embassy also warns against the King Power/police scam:
It is in danish but is a warning about a danish woman that had to pay 65000 DKK(11000 USD) to police because she showed a lipstick to a friend. Maybe she took the lipstick across the shop border. It is not quite clear
Here is a google translation:
Danes warned against airport police in Bangkok
Published 20.07.09 kl. 14:01 (GMT+1)
Be careful if you shop in stores in the international airport in Bangkok. You risk being arrested and charged of corruption of Thai airport officials.
That is the warning from the Danish Embassy in Bangkok, who knows a young Danish woman who recently had problems at the airport.
“Be careful with the stores where there is open space, and it seems that you can freely move around,” says Mads Beyer, who is deputy head of the embassy in Bangkok, to DR News.
Claims for money
He says that the woman had taken a mascara or lipstick, and would show it to a fellow passager, who was just nearby. Without knowing it the unfortunate woman crossed a shop invisible border and was snatched by the police.
“The police who carried out the arrest, and a translator seemed very aggressive and let know that they must have a lot of money to help,” says Mads Beyer, adding that the police clearly expresses that it can be a lengthy and difficult process if you do not choose to pay, says deputy head of DR News.
The embassy does not want to give details about the case, but according to BBC News has more visitors every month problems with the police at the airport.
Two British passengers were among others threatened that they would be thrown directly in the notorious Bangkok Hilton prison, where they had to wait two months before the case was handled, if they did not pay 65,000 kroner to the police and an interpreter to get ” help “in this case ..
Woman convicted of shoplifting
The Danish woman who was taken with makeup in hand, was convicted of shoplifting.
The embassy does not want to say hviken punishment she received, but Mads Beyer says that the typical punishment is a fine of 300-400 Danish kroner, and that it could two years of conditional imprisonment.
Beyer urges people first and foremost to take care not to cross a border store with something in his hand. Will is taken, the tourists refuse to give in to threats from the police, whose officers require bribes.
- If people in trouble, it would be a good idea to contact the embassy. We are available to help when there are unpleasant things, “says Mads Beyer.
- I can not guarantee that you do not get an unpleasant experience and a fright. But we are in a legal community, which ceteris paribus will have a trial. And we urge them to not be true to help to contact his embassy.
The Danish Embassy will now make contact with embassies from other EU countries to see how big the problem is and what we might do about it
Source for the above in Danish read here: http://jp.dk/rejser/storby/article1759143.ece
Suthep urges public to inform him of alleged illegal activities at Suvarnabhumi airport
BANGKOK: — Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban Friday urged the public to provide him information about alleged illegal activities at the Suvarnahbumi International Airport.
Suthep said the information would assist his campaign to clean up the mess at the airport, which is the gateway to Thailand.
On Wednesday, the Cabinet assigned Suthep to head an operation to fight against illegal activities and dark influence at the airport.
Suthep said he would soon conduct a meeting of all government agencies concerned and would listen to opinions of business operators at the airport.
AoT to provide waiting room for airport shop stealers
SUVARNABHUMI: — People accused of theft at Suvarnabhumi Airport will now be detained in a special room to wait for ambassadors of their own country to come and negotiate under a plan by Airports of Thailand (AoT).
The AoT said providing a special holding area will prevent any attempts at swindling, after local and foreign media reported foreign tourists were being falsely accused and forced into paying large sums of money to have erroneous charges against them dropped.
The AoT said an investigation had shown that no AoT staff were involved in swindling tourists and hypothesized that the complaints resulted from arrested shoplifters complaining to the embassies for expenses paid for assistance in clearing their cases.
Since the middle of last month newspapers, television reports, bloggers and radio stations around the world have been issuing warnings to tourists traveling to Thailand of alleged scams operating at Bangkok’s national airport.
Since the story first broke of two English tourists being falsely accused of shop stealing from Duty Free stores operated by the King’s Power Group and required to pay large amounts of money to secure their release, other tourists and foreign governments have repeated the warning.
Suvarnabhumi Airport has been plagued by corruption allegations since before it was opened, with taxi touts with “broken meters”, false guides, shake-downs by suspect customs officers and baggage thefts just the tip of the iceberg.
The Thai Government has threatened a crackdown on scams operating at the airport but, apart from recently ordering baggage handlers to wear uniforms without pockets and vowing to install more CCTVs in the luggage handling area, has done little else.
Ireland is the latest country to issue a warning to its nationals to “be extremely careful” when browsing at Suvarnabhumi Airport, after England and Denmark issued similar warnings over the last few weeks.
Almost all of the tourists who have come forward and complained of having money extorted from them to have allegedly trumped up charges against them “go away” have reported dealing with a Sri Lankan volunteer translator named “Tony”.
According to newspaper reports, “Tony” instructs those who have been detained to pay up to 400,000 baht (about$US11,800) — half for bail and the other half for his “fees” – for an offense that normally results in a 3,000 baht (about$US88) fine, or spend months in jail waiting for the case to go to court.