Crime

UK Man Arrested for Attempted Murder in Adam Pickles Case

Published

13 years ago

July 9, 2012

Bchcomber

Sean Henry Tinsley Arrested at Bangkok Airport

Chiangrai Times – A 43-year-old Briton accused of the brutal road rage attack on a popular English teacher in Thailand was today (Saturday) being held in custody for attempted murder after being arrested at Bangkok International Airport.

Sean Henry Tinsley had fled Thailand, it is alleged, after launching a brutal attack on Adam Pickles, 40, from Bradford, Yorkshire,leaving him for dead in the resort of Pattaya – 80 miles east of Bangkok.

Tinsley, from Wolverhampton, was arrested on his return late Friday and is expected to be further remanded in custody at Pattaya Provincial Court (Mon).

So serious were Pickles’ injuries that is believed he attacked Adam Pickles from behind with a wheel brace after he scraped Tinley’s vehicle while getting out of a parking spot in the resort city.

But CCTV footage appears to show Tinsley, who had already been deported from Thailand for immigration offences, re-enacting the crime with bravado in front of friends showing him punching someone face on and knocking him down.

After six weeks the popular Head of English at the Regent’s International School in Pattaya, was brought back home to the U.K. When a local and international appeal received a massive response for funds.

But today the amiable guitar playing teacher still remains in a coma in Leeds General Hospital. Kids and teachers from the school have been sending messages of support.

Adam’s parents Andrew, 62, and Adele, 61, had earlier flown from Leeds to be by his bedside and see their grand-son Benjamin for the first time.

Adam Pickles

Back in Leeds Adele Pickles said today “We are pleased and relieved at the arrest and we would like to thank the Thai police for their great help, particularly a Lt.Colonel Chakring at Banglamuang Police station and his team.

“Our only fear is that this man gets away again. An international warrant for his arrest was issued last Thursday. We do not know how he got back to Thailand. My husband and I are going through hell daily because of what happened. Our thoughts are with Adam, his wife, and our nine month old grand-son.”

Since the incident police have found CCTV records which allegedly show Tinsley, leaving a bar in Pattaya and chasing Adam after getting into his own vehicle.

When Tinsley comes back into camera shot seven or eight minutes later he uses gestures throwing punches and appears to be telling friends what he did. He then mimics a person dragging an object or body along the ground.

His best friend Steve Tomlinson, from Birmingham, Head of Music at the International School of the Regents said today “Adam was not a very good driver and the CCTV pictures suggest he might have scraped what I think was a white Toyota Fortuna. It’s a while since I have seen the video.

“But there was not a mark on Adam’s hired car so it could not have been serious. Injuries show he was hit on the back of his head. Part of his skull came off.

“This looks like a cowardly attack from behind by a thug, yet we can see on the video that this man is boasting about what he did. Adam was such a lovely guy. People are very angry here.”

Sources believed to be close to Tinsley however say Pickles broke his skull when he fell back onto the pavement. They say due to the outrage in the case Tinsley will find it difficult to get a fair trial.

Sean Tinsley’s Company ‘The Visa Shop’.

Other witnesses including a security guard have now come forward and given information about the incident outside a place called the ‘Paradise Bar’ in Soi Khao Noi, Pattaya.

Sean Tinsley had already been previously arrested in Pattaya. In 2007 he was charged with selling fake visas to long term foreigners in Thailand, who did not want to go through official channels, through his company ‘The Visa Shop’.

He allegedly charged £500 each for the visas to foreigners without work permits or qualifications to stay long term and was believed to be working with a corrupt immigration official.

He was deported, but it is believed to have returned after changing his name by deed poll. He left again after the attack on Pickles and was arrested returning to Thailand on Friday and taken straight from the airport to Banglamuang Police station, North Pattaya.

Feelings have been running high in the resort and many organizations have been donating to help Adam, who formerly taught at the Cathedral School in Wakefield.

After the attack Danielle Nicholls, a former colleague at the Cathedral School said:

“He’s one of those characters that everyone who meets him loves.

“He radiates positivity and makes everyone smile”.

In appeals launched simultaneously in both Britain and Thailand under the name ‘PicklesAid’ some £70,000 was raised to pay for hospital bills and medi-vac Adam Pickles home.

The insurance provided by his school did not cover the full amount. He had previously had a motor-cycle accident in the resort city which had also put him in a coma.

Adam Pickles’ parents still have to raise another £80,000 to pay for the full costs. – Andrew Drummond

Details of how to donate can be found at www.facebook.com/groups/adampickles or www.adampickles.blogspot.co.uk. –

Crime

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

Published

6 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

6 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

6 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.