It seemed like a good idea to return to paradise. That was the memory a Melbourne-based American couple had of the Thai holiday island Phuket where they used to live.

When they did return for a short holiday early last month, it became a holiday in hell.

After a night in prison plus $60,000 in mysterious payments through a Kafkaesque legal system, it was a very expensive hell too.

Logan Hesse and Urica Lopez met in Phuket four years ago where they were both working.

In May 2007, the house they were living in burnt down while they were out to dinner with friends.

Mr Hesse says police investigators told them at the time the cause was an electrical fault.

Soon afterwards, they left Thailand to come to Melbourne where they were enrolled as students at La Trobe University.

Mr Hesse revealed his story yesterday following revelations Melbourne tourist Annice Smoel faced jail on the island over the theft of a beer mat.

He believes such cases are due to a tourism downturn because of the global financial crisis and recent civil unrest.

These had bitten into the usual source of `supplementary income' for Phuket's police and other officials, Mr Hesse claims.

"Their pockets are lighter so they are turning on tourists," he said.

Mr Hesse said nothing more had been heard about their house fire until they arrived at Bangkok last month. They were immediately detained and their passports were confiscated by police who told them a Phuket arrest warrant was outstanding for "criminal damage".

The costs started piling up from that point.

The couple were expected to cover the $265 price of an air ticket for a police officer to accompany them on to their island destination.

In Phuket, they were refused permission to speak directly to the US embassy and were slapped in jail for the night.

Their problems were compounded by arriving at the start of the Thai New Year, when all officaldom shuts down for a week.

Although the initial police investigation found an electrical fault was the cause of the fire, a subsequent report some months later changed the cause to a cigarette, even thought they were out at the time.

The house owner was pursuing them for $60,000 in a civil action.

Under Thai law, the civil action had to be resolved before any criminal trial could take place, so they were uable to leave.

Mr Hesse said this could have meant waiting in Thailand for years with no source of income.

The lawyer who claimed he had been appointed by the US embassy then tried to pocket $7000 until they made a fuss in his office.

The pair then negotiated with the house owner to reduce his claim to $50,000 and a further $1500 went to the police to have the matter heard expeditiously.

"In court the judges didn't even speak to us, we just had to hand over a wad of money to the landlord and we were fined 10,000 bhat ($380) for criminal damage," Mr Hesse said.

"We were never able to find if the house was insured.

"I think the landlord was able to organise a second fire investigation, either because he had no insurance or he was under pressure from the bank.

"They knew we would come back because we had friends [in Thailand]."

Mr Hesse said he and Ms Lopez had set up a blog to tell their tale and hopefully recoup some of their total $60,000 in costs  from sympathisers.

The revelations follow a case earlier this year when a British man in Thailand was shackled and jailed for three weeks for ''being rude to officials''.

.............According to a survey conducted by Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC) in 2008, expatriates perceive the level of corruption in Thailand to be among the highest in Asia. The main source of corruption in Thailand is known as 'money politics', a term that refers to the flow of money within the political scene. This is confirmed by the Transparency International Global Corruption Barometer 2007, where the political parties are named by Thais as the most corrupt sector in Thailand...............

However, Thailand's investment climate continues to suffer from several issues. According to the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report 2008-2009, companies consider corruption to be the fourth most major barrier to doing business in Thailand after government and policy instability, and inefficient government bureaucracy. Corruption is indeed a significant problem in Thailand,

No need to avoid Thailand.

Just avoid stupidity. Usually. These people in this situation were unlucky, and yes, foreigners always lose in Thailand. And elsewhere in Asia.

The lady that has been charged with taking that bar mat, argued angrily with a General in the Thai police. In front of his troops. Knowing the Asian psyche as I do, the only thing that was going to guarantee, was that she was nailed to the wall. She is going to have to apologise, profusely, to the General, and everyone else, unless she has some real good friends in Canberra.

Soldiers often have those friends in Canberra - doubt she will. One never knows.

A simple apology, and a small fine would have seen the matter dealt with

Natalie Appleby and her fiance know all too well the problems Annice Smoel faced - the Perth couple went through a similar ordeal last month.

While Mrs Smoel, a mother of four, is safely back in Melbourne after spending four nights in a Thai jail on charges of stealing a $50 bar mat, Ms Appleby still shivers at how her fiance suffered a similar - and much more expensive - fate.

Like Mrs Smoel, Ms Appleby's fiance - who only wanted to be identified by his first name, Michael - went for a drink in the popular Aussie Bar in Phuket.

He had surprised Ms Appleby, who travelled to Thailand last month to act as bridesmaid at a friend's wedding, by travelling to Phuket.

On his first night in Phuket, and the night before the wedding, Michael went with a group of people to the Aussie Bar.

"He doesn't remember finishing his second drink. The next morning he had no recollection of the night but found he had woken up in a Phuket jail," Ms Appleby told WAtoday.com.au.

Michael managed to find an English-speaking detective in the jail and made a phone call to his worried fiance.

Her father went to see Michael, and things began to get worse.

"First of all they tried to charge him with stealing, but a Thai lady there said the shop he was accused of stealing from was actually closed," Ms Appleby said.

"They then said they had made a mistake and charged him with damaging the roof of a house. There weren't any houses there, but they said it would cost $5000 for the charges to go away. They said if we talked to the Australian Consulate, (Michael) would be taken to the Bangkok Hilton (the notorious Thai jail, Bangkwang prison)."

After negotiating with a detective - "he wanted the money in an envelope" - the family paid $3000 to have the charges dropped. Ms Smoel pleaded guilty to her charges - in order to leave Thailand - was fined $38 and placed on a good behaviour bond.


"(The detective) told us everything would be sweet and to enjoy the rest of our holiday," Ms Appleby said.

"We could've done like (Mrs Smoel) and fought the charges but he would've been there for quite a few more days. Michael was obviously petrified. There were big, big grey patches in what they were charging him with."

Michael left Thailand for Perth almost immediately. Ms Appleby suspected his drink had been spiked, and said the incidents were a warning for Australians visiting the tourist mecca.

"People need to know to watch out. You need to be with friends and they need to be watching out for each other," she said.

"You have to be careful of having a big night. It's a shame. I don't want to say don't go there, because it can be good, but maybe the bad publicity will make them clean up their act. People there say this sort of thing is happening all the time and Thai prostitutes will drop drugs into Westerners drinks."

Calanen wrote on May 20^th, 2009 at 4:47pm:


Friday 22nd I listened to Micheal Smith on 4bc interview the owner of the Aussie bar (he is an Australian).
The owner said that there were a couple of off duty police in the bar at the time and saw the bar mat being nicked.
The cops chatted her but apparently she tried to do a runner but was quickly caught.
When they caught her she abused them and subsequently refused to sign any statement(s) which meant the matter could not proceed to court.
According to the bar owner, her problem was entirely of her own making. (silly arrogant cow)

I am all for expecting people who come to our country to obey our laws and have regard for our culture and I also think that it is an entirely reasonable requirement on us when we visit any other country.

If what the bar owner claimed is true, this woman can consider herself very lucky that a Thai official stuck his neck out for her but because of her lousy behaviour, other decent Australian tourists may face a tough time.

Cheers.

I think I should see you in my chambers right now  

locutius wrote on Jun 12^th, 2009 at 3:49pm:

Good name for a law firm... Short and Curley - Attorneys at Law.

Had he pulled that stunt in the USA he likely would've been charged with murder one and received life in prison or the death penalty.

I suppose that you refute her guilt, so what, the ones that count, the judges, did not agree.

I suppose the fact that her whole family had links to the drug trade impresses some with her pathetic claim that someone put the drugs in without her knowledge, but I have no sympathy for those who try and garner support through sensationalising events with a media circus, it is the absolute, dumbest way to go.

She should have kept sthtum, organised a bribe, and been home for her next birthday.

Maybe a dingo did it?

i'd rather have one S. Corby in Australia than thousands of wankers like you, sir - and i use that term very loosely.

Quote:


I'm not sure where the subject went from Thailand to Indonesia, but I do agree that Corby is very much a scape-goat.
From what I've heard, you can buy magic mushies by the kilo over there. The surfers and other travellers probably enjoy a bit of pot, so I'd think there would be a good market for it.. much better than doing mushies in that environment.
They're just stupid Islam stuffups, they don't know which drug is good for their tourism industry.

Going back to the case of the diver who murdered his new wife, I'm not so sure about that one. I don't know what his motive was.

Well the whole Corby family seem to be the biggest bunch of bogans and low-lifes around. They deserve everything they get, except for the millions they make out of selling their story. The only good thing about that is that they will probably end up killing and maiming each other fighting over it.

You seem proud of the fact that they'll make millions. What is this - revenge of the bogans?

yes, stay away from ANY muslim country


Quote:

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,25795236-952,00.html

I agree that she's the stupid bogan that caught, however, I think that the reasons for the harsh penalty were more so because they wanted her case to be a deterrent to other importers of the evil drug marijuana.
The motive for not wanting marijuana in their country is nothing to do with people's health, it's all economic.
The MJ was undoubtedly destined for tourists, and they don't want the tourists sitting on the beach smoking doobies, they want them out in the bars spending money on legally imported, and much more harmful drugs, such as alcohol. In fact, compared to other drugs such as tobacco, alcohol, caffiene, pharmaceuticals, pharmaceuticals and more pharmaceuticals, marijuana can be directly attributed to a relatively low number of deaths - that's if you consider "zero" a relatively low number.