Airport scam, extortion

[Mark]

There have been many reports over the past few months about a duty free shop inside the airport putting an extra item in your bag and then the customer is later arrested for shoplifting, taken to jail, and huge sums extorted for quick resolution.

Now, one of these stories has hit the newspapers. It names the King Power duty free shop. King Power has been controversial before in other ways.

Here is the article in The Nation:

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2009...l_30106228.php

and in the Times Online (British):

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle6590584.ece

The Nation's article:

British couple fights Bangkok airport extortionists

A British couple who were falsely accused of shoplifting in Bangkok airport and were forced to pay 8,000 pounds in bribes to secure their release are to take legal action for compensation.

Times online reported on Sunday the couple 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 April 25.

They were accused of taking a Givenchy wallet worth 121 pounds 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.

The online claimed 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.

They alleged 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

"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 pounds 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 pounds — 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.

[Mark]

What is most remarkable about this case is that there are other stories of this happening before at the airport over the previous few months. This is apparently not an isolated incident. Same results, a major extortion.

Different people have different ways of handling bad situations, but one thing I do is always take peoples names and all details, to make sure they know they are kept accountable.

In circumstances such as the above, I would not let anybody intimidate me to not contact my embassy or others.

Extortion -- for money -- wins mostly by intimidation.

They tend to target people who look rich, naive, and easy to intimidate, and nationalities whose embassies don't care.

Unfortunately, most embassies are notoriously lazy and careless, so make sure you take the name of the person who answers the phone and everybody you talk with there, and address them by their full name if necessary just to remind them they are accountable.

Most (not all) of the embassies are staffed with corrupt cronies who are lazy and arrogant and careless. Most, not all embassies and employees. They don't want to be bothered by a commoner's complaint and will just pass the buck to an outside lawyer, and then move on to enjoying their next perks and privileges. They are living on lavish expat packages which help keep them busy. Their workweek is minimal. They don't go beyond the minimum in their duties, and so many don't even do the minimum.

This is not just about corruption in Thailand.

This is also about embassy incompetence and carelessness. The embassy should be investigated, too, in the case above, names named, in public.

Anytime you get into a situation like this, always take names.

If you think the embassy is experts at this, you are wrong. It is their job, but I have found that most embassy people don't know or keep track of what a lot that goes on in Bangkok and Thailand routinely. In some cases, it's understandable since many embassy staff are rotated in and out over just a few years, but the person whose job it is to serve its citizens in a particular country should be properly informed and keep up to date.

Don't let anybody intimidate you with libel if you are telling the truth. Let them bring you to court. That can make the issue even more public. When you win, that will be more mud in their face.

If you think the video footage of a store camera is easily obtained, you're wrong if the store is in the wrong, and the store will make every excuse not to give it or that the camera wasn't working or something like that. The police may have the power to obtain it, but if the police on the scene are in on the extortion racket, then you will need to go to a higher level.

Besides extortionist shops at the airport, also be careful about taxis.

Always take the taxis from the standard taxi queue, not those waiting for passengers outside the official taxi queue. This is the main airport scam. I have taken many taxis which I saw dropping off passengers in order to save some money from the official taxi queue, but never, ever take a taxi just waiting there for a passenger. A few airport police cars drive around frequently to push out those extortionists but the extortionists are diligent at just looping around and coming back.

It will be interesting to see if anything is done about the entities involved in the case above by the Thai authorities.

[Mark]

The article in the Sunday Times:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle6590584.ece

From The Sunday Times
June 28, 2009

British couple fights Bangkok airport extortionists

Two tourists were held by an airport gang until they paid up £8,000

Michael Sheridan

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.”