Crime

Regent’s School Teacher Adam Pickles Showing Signs of Recovery ‎

Published

12 years ago

June 8, 2012

Bchcomber

Adam has lived in Thailand for the last 7 years, working as a teacher in an international school.

CHIANGRAI TIMES – Neil Clappison, friend of teacher Adam Pickles who is in a coma following an unprovoked attack in Thailand say he is showing signs of recovery. Adam Pickles has overcome pneumonia and a fever and is now breathing unaided, while he recovers from the brutal attack which left him needing emergency brain surgery.

It is now more than three weeks since Adam Pickles was hit with a metal bar by an attacker – believed to be a Westerner – who drove off, leaving him for dead.

The Regent’s school held a fund raiser for Mr. Pickles in Pattaya

He had only just recovered from a horrific motorbike crash which had also left him in a coma, missing the birth of his son Benjamin, now eight months old.

Yesterday, Mr Pickles’ friend, Neil Clappison, 40, said: “We had a couple of scary moments just before the weekend. He caught pneumonia and had a fever as well.

But he has overcome both. The first ten days or so were critical – that was the danger zone. He had passed through that before the infections and seems to have fought them off.

He is now regulating his own body temperature and breathing 60 per cent unaided, so he seems to be getting better. He needs less and less support every day.

We are hoping that he is going to be out of intensive care in the middle of next week but that is just a guess at the moment.

Meanwhile, his friends – as well as strangers – have raised £33,000 for his continued care, the majority of which has been given by generous donors who have joined a group on social networking site FaceBook. As of yesterday the group numbered 6,800 members.

Mr Pickles’ insurance company has also agreed to pay about ten per cent of the estimated £70,000 costs of hospital care and repatriation. His hospital care bill alone is £2,000 per day.

Mr Clappison said: “I would imagine that most of the people donating have never met Adam but people are still getting involved. We are getting an awful lot of donations from strangers.

We are finding it really overwhelming how generous people are. It really does restore your faith in human kindness when you see first-hand how many people are donating every single day.

Adam Pickles has lived in Thailand for seven years and is head of English at the Regent’s School in Pattaya. The school is holding a sponsored event called Pattaya to Pickles to raise money for Adam. There are also fundraising activities planned in the UK.

For further information or to find out how to donate, visit donatetoadam.org.

The Foreign Office and British Consulate

We have had little or no help from the Foreign Office or British Consulate. There are many logistical problems surrounding Adam’s situation that we believe Adam and his family, as U.K. citizens, should receive help with.

Adam’s parents are with him in Thailand but only have a limited stay due to their visas and they may have to leave the country before Adam comes out of the coma. Also, Adam’s passport is missing, and obviously he is unable to say where it is. A replacement will take up to 8 weeks to arrive, but with luck Adam will be out of the coma in 2 to 4 weeks, so we may be unable to get him back to the U.K. even when he is able to be moved.

There is little or no investigation being carried out into who carried out this horrendous attack on Adam, or why they did it. Knowing the answers to these questions would help in Adam’s insurance case (see below).

We believe that a U.K. citizen in a situation like this should be able to expect some aid from the U.K. government, both financially and with these logistical problems.

If you agree please e-mail [email protected], using “ADAM PICKLES” as the subject and stating that Derek Laud suggested you write. This is the e-mail address of an advisor to William Hague, the Foreign Secretary.

Adam’s School Insurance Company

Adam is insured through the school he works at as Head of English but his insurance company was refusing to pay out. They said they need to speak to Adam. Adam is in a coma and will remain in one for at least another 2 to 4 weeks. They also said that his insurance policy does not cover him if he is involved in a “brawl”. Adam was hit over the head with an iron bar in an unprovoked attack, his skull was smashed open and he was left for dead in the side of the road, this is way beyond a “brawl”.

The cost of keeping Adam in hospital while he is in a coma is £2,000 per day, plus there is the cost of the brain surgery required to save his life and remove fragments of skull from his brain and the cost of his medication. On top of this there are the medical repatriation costs of getting Adam back to the U.K. once he is well enough to be moved.

Adam’s insurance company have now agreed to honor their policy and pay up. The actual amount is not known yet, and unfortunately but this is a great victory. They specifically asked for this to be mentioned on Facebook, which shows the power that this campaign has had. Very well done to everyone who pressured them into seeing sense and making this decision.

Crime

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

Published

4 months ago

July 20, 2024

Thomas3940

Police Officer Being Ordained at Temple Arrested

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

Published

4 months ago

July 20, 2024

Thomas3940

Thai Immigration Police Arrest Colombian Tourist

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

Published

4 months ago

July 17, 2024

Thomas3940

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.