Crime

Inquests Shows Briton Died in Thailand after ‘Downing Buckets of Vodka and Red Bull

Peter Nicholson, 29, died of alcohol poisoning after sharing four buckets of vodka and Red Bull during a 36-hour binge in Thailand

A British holidaymaker, Peter Nicholson, 29, died of alcohol poisoning after sharing four buckets of vodka and Red Bull during a 36-hour binge in Thailand, an inquest heard.

Engineer Peter Nicholson, had downed more than 20 bottles of lager, drank shots of Sambuca and Jack Daniels and cola during his first day of his trip to Thailand.

His consumption of the energy drink from the so-called ‘Thai buckets’ masked the effects of his alcohol intake – and he didn’t realise how he was drunk he was.

Nicholson, pictured left during a previous trip to Thailand, died last year following the 36-hour drinking binge.

The father-of-one was found dead the following morning in his hotel room in Bangkok when friends failed to wake him up. Tests showed he was more than four times over legal drink-drive limit.

The Thai buckets, an infamous part of the country’s Full Moon Parties, are filled with spirits, ice and a mixer of choice and usually drunk through straws – making it almost impossible to keep track of the amount of booze consumed.

An inquest into Mr Nicholson’s death heard that the father, from Wigan, Greater Manchester, would regularly holiday in Thailand and had built up a network of friends in the South-East Asian country.

On May 31 last year he booked a last-minute trip to the country having already visited Thailand just weeks earlier.

A post mortem-examination revealed Mr Nicholson, pictured above on one of his many trips to Thailand, had 341 microgrammes of alcohol per 100 mililitres of blood in his system.

He had his first pint in the departure lounge at Manchester Airport while waiting to board a flight to Qatar – then began downing cans of lager and Jack Daniels with coke during the seven hour flight.

He eventually arrived in Bangkok on a connecting flight but then went out that evening with his friends.

His friend Daniel Wilson told the inquest: ‘We were in contact on the day I was going away and the others had already set off. He said he was going to ring up and book a flight now.

Buckets: a popular alcoholic drink in Thailand especially at Full Moon parties

‘He said, “come round to mine and bring your suitcase”. We had some pizza and a pint before we got on the plane. On the first flight to Qatar we had four small cans of lager. We also had four mini bottles of Jack Daniels with coke.

‘Peter slept most of the second journey. He was drinking a lot of water when he was waking up. We had five or six bottles of lager in the afternoon when we arrived.’

He said the pair then went sightseeing and both drank an iced tea before they got ready to go out for the night.

The father-of-one, pictured left with his friend Daniel Wilson during his trip, was found dead the following morning in his hotel room in Bangkok when friends failed to wake him up

From around 7.30pm Mr Nicholson drank more than 20 bottles of strong lager and consumed shots of Sambuca.

Mr Wilson returned early to his hotel but Mr Nicholson and two other friends stayed out and shared the buckets of vodka and Red Bull before returning at 1am.

Back at the hotel Mr Nicholson was said to be ‘laughing and joking’ in his bedroom and ordered food.

He was found dead at 9am the following day by Mr Wilson. The group had planned to move on to the party town of Pattaya.

Mr Wilson said: ‘I didn’t want to believe what was happening. It was really cold in the room as the air con was on really low. I tickled Peter’s feet to try and get his attention but his feet were really cold. He just looked asleep.’

An inquest into Mr Nicholson’s death heard he would regularly holiday in Thailand and had built up a network of friends in the South-East Asian country. He is pictured right on an earlier trip to the country

Further tests showed he had 452mg of alcohol per 100ml of urine. Deaths from alcohol toxicity are expected at levels of 350 mg.

The hearing was told Mr Nicholson was ‘not a big drinker’ and toxicologist Julie Evans said he may not have known just how drunk he was because of the combination of vodka and Red Bull.

She said: ‘There are some concerns around the process of people consuming vodka and Red Bull. It is a stimulant. It can counter the effects of alcohol and people consume more alcohol not realising how intoxicated they are. It is called “wide-eyed drunk”.

‘When you mix Red Bull with vodka you are risking masking the effect of alcohol on the body. In the absence of any other pathological finding, the most likely cause of death is alcohol toxicity.

‘If he was not a heavy drinker then the risk is higher at a lower concentration. He would have just gone to sleep and not woken up.’

Mr Nicholson’s mother Irene said: ‘He was a hard-working lad and very popular. He kept himself fit and would run regularly. He enjoyed going on holidays and had been to Thailand a number of times.

‘He did like to have a drink but wasn’t a heavy drinker. On the Saturday he asked if I could take his daughter. He said he was going away for two weeks and asked her what she wanted for her birthday. She said, “just surprise me dad”.’

Recording a conclusion of accidental death, coroner Alison Mutch told Mr Nicholson’s family: ‘A significant amount of alcohol was consumed during the course of the day. He clearly consumed in excess of 20 bottles of lager and probably significantly more than that.

‘In addition it is likely he had at least one shot of Sambuca and also vodka mixed with Red Bull. The alcohol readings are very high and carry a high risk of death. This must have been a dreadful event in your lives and very hard for us to imagine how awful it must be to wave somebody off and to see them in good health knowing they have gone on holiday to Thailand.

‘Their intention was to have a good time and everybody appeared to be having a good time and enjoying themselves but to end in such a very tragic way must be extremely difficult for all of you.’

After the hearing, Peter’s sister Joanne, 31, added: ‘He was very outgoing and almost a father-figure to me, even though I’m older. He was a brilliant dad.

‘He loved Thailand and even had his own little sort-of family over there and they all loved him. He used to go there whenever he got a chance to get away. Drinking is what people do when they go away, you just don’t expect anything like this. We all think twice now.’

By Katie Louise Davies

Crime

Police Officer Being Ordained at Temple Arrested for Running Scam Call Center

Police in Northern Thailand have arrested a fellow officer as he was being ordained at a temple in Ngao district of neighbouring Lampang province.

Pol Lt Col Bandit Khonkan chief inspector from the Hang Dong police station was disrobed and taken to the Chang Puak station in Chiang Mai. He was arrested on charges of running a call centre scam gang in Chiang Mai Province.

According to Thai Media Chiang Mai Provincial Police Region 5 obtained an arrest warrant for Pol Lt Col Bandit on Friday from the Chiang Mai Provincial Court for procuring illegal telecom equipment, setting up a station and using public airwaves to run a telecommunications business without permission.

Pol Lt Col Bandit reportedly told investigators that he was not the ringleader and was only a member of the gang with Chinese partners.

His arrest followed the apprehension of his 26-year-old daughter, Miss Wanuchapond, 26, and three others during raids at three housing projects in Chiang Mai on Friday, Pol Maj Gen Weerachon Boontawee, deputy chief of Provincial Police Region 5 told Thai media.

During the raids police police discovered around 12 GSM gateways, or SIM boxes, which are devices used for converting cellular networks into mobile phone numbers used domestically.

The chief inspectors daughter Miss Wanuchapond told the arresting officers that she was paid 8,000 baht a month at each of the three locations for renting thr rooms and monitoring devices.

She claimed she had no idea what the devices were and accepted the job because the pay was attractive.

Police investigators working with telecom regulators used a special tracking device to monitor the gang’s communications and learned that its base was in Myanmar opposite Mae Sai district of Chiang Rai.

The call center gang used the GSM gateways to make calls over the internet to scam people in Thailand out of million of baht.

The GSM gateways transmitting signals via SIM boxes to convert them into domestic phone numbers, duping victims into thinking they were being called from Thai government agencies.

Pol Maj Gen Weerachon said that each SIM box held 32 SIM cards, with a capacity of up to 300,000 calls a month. The seized devices had made fraudulent calls over 3.6 million times.

He said the their investigation is ongoing and they are working to track down the remaining conspirators, including Chinese and other Thai suspects.

Authorities are still deciding whether Pol Lt Col Bandit will be dismissed from the force, he said, adding that so far, no other officers are known to have been involved.

Police in Chiang Rai Launch Crackdown on Cyber Criminals in Golden Triangle

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Settha Thavisin has authorized the establishment of an emergency cyber center operated by the Royal Thai Police to combat transnational crimes committed by call center gangs along the Thai border in Chiang Rai province.

On July 19, Prime Minister Settha Thavisin directed the Center to combat information technology crimes. The Royal Thai Police (Royal Thai Police) will crack down on call center gangs in Myanmar, Laos, and along the border.

His directive comes as call center gangs ratchet up their scams to defraud people of their money, causing concern among Thais and jeopardizing the country’s economic and social stability.

Related Police News:

Machete Wielding Man Shot an Killed by Police in Chiang Rai

https://www.chiangraitimes.com/chiangrai-news/machete-wielding-man-shot-an-killed-by-police-in-chiang-rai/

Crime

Thai Immigration Police Arrest Colombian Tourists Over Home Invasions

Immigration police officers have arrested four Colombian nationals in connection with a series of home burglaries at luxury housing complexes in the Bangkok metropolitan area and Chiang Buri Province.

Pol Maj Gen Panthana Nuchanart, deputy commissioner of the Immigration Bureau, told a press briefing that three of the suspects were apprehended in Nonthaburi Province and the fourth in South Pattaya, Chon Buri Province.

According to the Bangkok Post, the Colombians were charged with stealing conspiracy and seized around 3 million baht (US$82,500.00).

According to Pol Maj Gen Panthana, the criminals rode motorcycles through housing estates, scoping out the properties and waiting for the owners to depart before committing their crimes.

He stated that all four of the accused denied any involvement in the home break-ins, but the arresting squad discovered evidence that implicated them.

Police called to home invasion

Meanwhile, police were dispatched to a luxury housing development in Tambon Nong Prue, Chonburi Province, after a Chinese man was attacked during a house invasion.

When they arrived, they discovered the house owner, Mr. Qian Peng Yi, visibly scared and with marks from being tied up with a cable. He informed police that three Chinese males broke into his home at 9 p.m., one of whom brandished a gun at him and directed him to his bedroom.

They bound his hands and feet, gagged him with fabric, taped his head, and forced him into the bed. The intruders then attempted to compel him into transferring 10 million baht in cryptocurrencies to them, endangering the life of his 33-year-old cousin who was in a second-floor bedroom.

While they scoured the house in search of riches, Mr. Peng Yi managed to flee and hide; he subsequently observed them leave with his cousin. Officials investigated the property and analyzed security camera footage from the incident and surrounding areas.

Around 9 p.m., a 30-year-old van driver came at the Bang Lamung police station after being contacted by an agency to carry Chinese customers from Pattaya to Suvarnabhumi Airport.

The driver informed authorities that he was supposed to pick them up at a motel about a kilometer from the Chinese businessman’s home. He then drove them to Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport, arriving at 1 a.m. and receiving 1,800 baht.

The driver took a snapshot of the group smoking at the airport gate and identified one of them as the victim’s cousin. Police suspected coordination between her and the three suspects in her cousin’s heist, who all departed Thailand on the same aircraft.

Other Bangkok News:

Police in Bangkok Discover Six Vietnamese Tourists Dead in 5 Star Hotel

Police in Bangkok Discover Six Vietnamese Tourists Dead in 5 Star Hotel

Crime

Son of Thailand’s Leading Legal Scholar on Corruption Arrested for Running Online Gambling Network

The son of a former senator and leading economist and expert on corruption and gambling in Thailand has been arrested for on charges of running an online gambling network and its payment system.

Police from Thailand’s Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD) have confiscated assets worth more than (US$ 11.1 million) 400 million baht.

Narote Piriyarangsan, 33, was arrested following crackdowns in three sites around the city, according to Pol Maj Gen Athip Pongsiwapai, commander of the police Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD).

Mr Narote’s father, Sangsit Piriyarangsan, is an economist who has written articles and books about corruption and gambling. He was one of the appointed senators that were investigating the government’s intention to legalize casino gaming before their terms expired.

Police also detained 39-year-old Narayut Narakaew, the owner of the gambling website 69pgslot.com. The Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for the couple for operating an internet gambling service and money laundering.

According to the Bangkok Post, police seized two desktop computers, one laptop computer, 14 mobile phones, 21 bank passbooks, 53 ATM cards, and four high-end cars — a Ferrari 926 GTS, an Aston Martin, a Lexus, and a Subaru — totaling more than 400 million baht.

Police launched the inquiry after discovering the online gambling site, which accepted funds via an automatic deposit-withdrawal system through bank accounts and deposits in the AskMePay system. Players scanned the VPay QR code as well as the QR codes for Heng Online 888 or Heng Pay Company.

Police also discovered that payments received via QR code scans were transferred to the account of Heng Pay Co and then to the gambling website’s mule accounts using AskMePay, which did not use banks’ face recognition scanning. An inquiry indicated a monthly turnover of approximately 5 billion baht.

According to investigators, the website has been up and running for around four years, with the payment mechanism in use for roughly eight months.

According to Pol Maj Gen Athip, Mr Narote owns the gaming website’s payment systems and is the director of Heng Pay Co. After gathering evidence, authorities requested arrest warrants for 14 people.

Thailand does not allow almost any kind of gaming. Even though the law doesn’t say anything specific about online gaming, it is still considered gambling. The country has pretty strict rules about gambling. Thai punters can bet on the national lottery and horse races, but they can’t bet on any other types of games.

But it’s not a secret that there is a huge illegal gaming business in Thailand, even though it’s illegal.

The illegal casinos, online betting shops, underground lotteries, and pop-up bookies that take bets on everything from cockfights to Muay Thai make a shadow economy that is worth billions of dollars every year.