DiamondKing

The full article explains things in more details and answers some questions asked here

DK

It was the moment Sean Felton had dreamt about.

Shaking, he knelt down and scooped his son up into his arms.

The lad's face split into a huge grin as he kissed his dad on the cheek and finally Sean knew his nightmare was over.

Six months earlier Jobe, three, had been taken 6,000 miles away by his Thai mother, Kim and Sean despaired of seeing his son again.

But after police failed to reunite them, he set a {cunning internet trap forex-wife Kim. He posed as a handsome young Ferrari-owning millionaire on Facebook convinced she would be unable to resist.

Sean says: "I was heartbroken when Kim took him to Thailand. I didnt want to livemy life not {knowing my son. She was {determined to evade me, so I hatched a plan I knew would reel her in.

Last week father and son returned to their four-bedroom house in Cannock, Staffs.

Sean, 43, who runs a decorating firm, met Kim while on holiday with a pal.

He says: The last thing I was looking for was love.

But he fell for Kim, 30, after she approached him in a bar and offered to show himaround.

After two weeks we were {inseparable, he says.

Sean who had been divorced for 10 years flew home a week later but could notstop thinking about her.

A month later he went back to see his beautiful Thai girlfriend and proposed after three weeks.

They wed on New Years Day 2006 in a Buddhist ceremony then came to England to start their life together.

In July 2007, Kim also known as Saowapak gave birth to Jobe.

But soon afterwards their {relationship began to founder.

Sean says: "I came home one day from work to find Jobe alone in his cot. Kim had gone out shopping with a friend. I explained mums don't do that here but she kept doing it.

"After a while she was going out at night with her friends she claimed they wereparties for Thai women only. But when I picked her up one night I saw a group of men coming out of her friends house.

"After months of sleeping in separate bedrooms I asked for a divorce.

"On March 26 this year Kim fled the country, taking Jobe with her."

Sean says: "She called me two days later laughing and said she was home."

Police and a private investigator failed to find his son. Then he had his brainwave.

He says: "I lay in bed one night imagining Jobe alone and scared, living in squalor, and it occurred to me that I might be able to find Kim on Facebook.

"After trawling through dozens of Saowapaks her face popped up. She'd changed her surname but it was her.

"I knew she wouldn't accept a friend request from me so I came up with the idea of posing as a millionaire looking for love. I set up a fake account with a picture of a man with a Ferrari and sent her a friend request. She fell for it."

With access to her profile, Sean scoured it for clues to her whereabouts. When he came across photos of Kim with a French tourist, Sean contacted him and told him what had happened.

The Frenchman confirmed that Kim and Jobe were in a hut in a remote village in Chiang Rai.

Sean went to the High Court to get legal custody of his son then flew to Thailand, where police agreed to help him search for Jobe.

He says: "My heart was pounding as we entered the village."

As police surrounded the house, Sean called out for Jobe. Kim stumbled out and pointed indoors.

Sean says: "Jobe was in the corner. I could hardly speak. I managed to say, 'Hello son', and crawl towards him with my arms out.

"He looked scared to death at first but once he realised it was me he fell into my arms and kissed my cheek.

"His teeth were chipped and they'd cut his hair. He looked like an orphan. It was so emotional to hold him in my arms again."

Sean had one final sleepless night away from Jobe before Kim and her family handed him over at the local police station.

Sean says: "Afterwards Kim and I flew to Bangkok because she wanted us to spend a week together before I took Jobe home. I was on tenterhooks. I didn't trust her. I kept thinking she'd try and take him.

"She told me she'd let him go if I paid for us all to stay in a five-star hotel. She claimed she wanted to spend time with Jobe but I think she just wanted a free holiday. I didn't let her out of my sight."

Finally, Sean flew home with his son.

He says: "I ran as fast as I could to the plane, carrying Jobe. I didn't breathe properly until we landed.

"Now he's starting to look like the boy who disappeared six months ago. Every day he looks healthier. Every moment is so precious. I've cried tears of joy ever since getting him home."

He adds: "I thought my relationship with Kim was genuine, but I was a fool."

Last night Kim denied she would leave Jobe alone in the UK and said: "Sean wouldn't get my British citizenship for me. What was I supposed to do? I don't feel bad about taking Jobe to Thailand. He is my son and I love him. I might have done wrong in the UK, but in my country I haven't.

"I agreed to let Sean take him back to the UK because I know he will look after him.

"We both love Jobe and I don't want to fight any more. I still want to see my son. I hope to come soon."

The man should be prosecuted for child abuse.

Have any of you been to Cannock?

The child would be better off in Burma or Laos, let alone an Isaan village, where he can live a good life.

Cannock! Bah!!

I do believe you are joking sir, Cannock chase being a described as a place of outstanding beauty, many great childhood memorys visiting Cannock chase.

http://www.cannock-chase.co.uk/

DK

The upside of the story was receiving the co-operation of the new beau. Had the frenchman not done the right thing, this would not have been resolved. In respect to whether the child is in better hands, I would expect that the father will ensure that the child goes to school. I do not think the child would have been attending school in France. What kind of life could the kid have had being hidden in France? I wonder why there was no warrant issued by the UK authorities that could have been served in France?

BTW, I also wonder if the father received guidance from a TVF member on how to pose as a wealthy man?

Im not sure you understood the OP the Mother fled to Thailand not France

DK

One wonders what the police was doing. Since Thailand is not a signatory party to the treaty on parental abduction, the child was staying legally with the mother in Thailand. Thailand doesn't recognised a court order from a foreign judge. Why was the police involved?

May I suggest he was a UK citizen since he was born in the UK and not in Thailand therefore I would think his passport was a British one, although i do agree she could of fought a little and got a lawyer as the mother but in reality its seems she gave him up easily and his father went to so much trouble to find him i think he is probably better off with his Father.

DK

In my circle of friends, several are heading back home or going back to work simply because they have run out, or are running out or cant live on what money they are receiving each month.

There is in my eyes anyway a large exodus of people leaving and going back to work.

DK

It is 0.71 carat round brilliant diamond. It is mounted on 5 attached rings; 2 of Indian 22 Carat gold combined with 3 of white gold which they refer to as Platinum ... and crowned with 22 carat gold 6 prongs

what the carat .

Hi Annabel

With regards to your Appraisal these are normally issued for retail replacement and for insurance purposes". What this means is that the value stated is what the insurance company bases their premiums on and how much it would cost for you to buy a similar piece of jewelry from a retail jewelry store also, this price is typically inflated over the actual purchase price as many insurance companies will only pay 70-90% of this amount. Additionally, this price is also inflated to take into account the possibility of the prices of precious metals and diamonds increasing in value at some time in the future.

Since your ring is no longer the same ring I will have to break it down and give you some estimates on the Diamonds and the setting seperately

Stone 1 is a very nice desirable Diamond and good Quality and you could expect to pay for a loose stone of that quality in the range of 2750-3500 US the higher price for a certified Diamond.

Stone 2 and 3 are what's called accent stones and sold by the carat price based on size and color clarity which is then divided by 100 points and then multiplied by the number of points in your stones to give you a price

Stone 2 has 0.17 points SI1 and the price would be roughly $217.00

Stone 3 is slightly better quality with a VS1 and the price for this one is $279.00

So just your stones are worth in the region of $4000.00 US if you wanted to replace them

If you were to go and get an appraisal it would of course be for more as I mentioned in the first paragraph.

As for your setting the value of the gold is determined by purity and weight. You already said the purity, is 22K, which means 22/24, or 91.67% pure gold. The current spot price of gold is $1318.00 / troy ounce so if you divide it by 31.1 grams, ajust for 91.67 gold content your looking at $38.00 a gram for your ring setting. (EDIT just reread and realized you have 5 rings only 2 of 22K so the above statement is not accurate)

If you wanted to calculate the value just weigh your ring and multiply by $38.00 the weight of the diamond is less than 0.2 gram so it won't matter in your calculation.

Please note those are retail prices and as for selling your ring your unlikely to get the retail price, but you could always think of selling the setting and the Diamond seperate,

Hope this helps

DK

I tried the Kitchen King sausages and they were terrible is this the same company ? I got them from Macro, the breakfast links and they were unedible.

DK

I doubt you can get a diamond properly graded in Chiang Mai. Most stones these days are already graded, have a laser engraved serial number, and should come with a grading certificate and a guarantee by the seller that the grading is honest. In other words, why are you thinking of buying a diamond in Thailand?!?

You are correct if you are speaking from a retail buyers point of view, and of course all those things you mention go towards bumping the price of that diamond up. If you are purchasing the Diamonds from a Wholesale source this is not the case, and most buy NON certified diamonds and grade them themselves from there experience.

If a customer wishes to get it certified by one of the recognized agencys then its no problem they pay the price of the certification plus an additional amount added on by the jeweler which bumps the price of the Diamond even more.

Certification is mainly there for customer confidence however by learning just a few little things about Diamonds you can learn enough to purchase non certified Diamonds at fabulous prices.

There is certainly nothing wrong with buying Diamonds in Thailand if you know what you are doing, Thailand is a a huge diamond dealer in the world market and there are some great deals to be found.

DK

Do a forum search top right hand corner lots of stuff on International schools

I have 2 daughters in School here in CM however they are quite a bit younger than yours however I only have good experiences with the Private schools here in CM I am sure some other people will be able to comment on a school suitable for your daughter.

DK

It is not easy to BUY or Value a Diamond unless you know what you are looking for. There are so many things to consider most people don't know what the quality of the ring they are wearing is but in reality what does it matter unless you want to sell it which most people don't.

There are many factors that affect the value of a diamond specifically the 4 C's Clarity, Cut, Carat, Color

Clarity is how clear the diamond is

FL: Completely flawless IF: Internally flawless; only external flaws are present, which can be removed by further polishing the stone

VVS1 - VVS2: Only an expert can detect flaws with a 10X microscope, if an expert can see a flaw from the top of the diamond, it is a VVS2. Otherwise, if an expert can only detect flaws when viewing the bottom of the stone, then it is a VVS1

VS1 - VS2: flaws can be seen with a 10X microscope, but it takes a long time to see them (more than about 10 seconds)

SI1 - SI2: You can easily see flaws or inclusions with a 10X microscope but not with the Naked eye

I1 - I3: You can see flaws with the naked eye. Consider avoiding I2-I3 diamonds.

You then Have the

CUT

This refers to the reflectivness of the Diamond basically how much it sparkles and reflects light. Often mistaken for the shape of the Diamond the Cut really has nothing to do with the shape of the Diamond.

There are 5 gradings for the Cut of a Diamond

Ideal

Premium

Very Good

Good

Fair & Poor

COLOR

Most people are not aware that Diamonds come in all sorts of natural Colors including: COLORLESS, WHITE, BLUE,RED, CHAMPAGNE, BLACK, BROWN etc. Most people are familiar with just the Colorless and WHITE ones which is the most popular and generally the Colorless one that will be worth the most money if all things remain equal.

The scale for the color for Diamonds is D-Z with D E F being the best and rated Colorless the it heads up the scale as tints of color are seen

The only way to correctly gauge the color of a stone is by using a set of reference stones and when gauging the color its best to have the stone in a loose form rather than in a setting.

Once you get to below the Z rating you get whats called FANCY COLOR DIAMONDS which are becoming popular due to the huge variety of colors the rating chart above is used for Colorless White Diamonds.

CARAT

Often people think that CARAT refers to the size of a diamond, but in reality a carat is actually the standard unit of measurement that defines the weight of a diamond. One carat is equivalent to 200 milligrams. Carat sizes are also expressed as "points", with a one carat diamond equaling 100 points, a one-half carat diamond being 50 points, a three-quarter carat diamond being 75 points, and so on.

Just because it says it a one carat Diamond does not neccesaarily mean its worth a lot of money, it really depends on all the factors above.

As you can see valueing a Diamond is not a cut and dry affair its complicated process with many factors to consider as is if you were going to buy a diamond the same would apply.

Now just to clear up a couple of incorrect comments

Thailand actually has a HUGE DIAMOND MARKET with dealers mainly located in Bangkok and is considered one of the top 5 polishing locations in the world.

As for certifications a GIA certification which is available in Bangkok prices are based on the weight of the stone and start at

B 1695.00 for a stone between .15 points and .22 points up to

B3200 for 1 Carat Stone

PLUS additional Fees such as engraving fee

Please note GIA only certifies LOOSE STONES

Do you need certification ? really depends but remember when you buy a certified stone its CONSIDERABLY MORE MONEY as the jewleer will add the price of the cert and some onto the final price. If you have a trustworthy seller they can also value it from experience,

As for the OPs question another thing to consider is the value of the ring mount material, contrary to what anyone says its worth money and is included in any valuation.

Without more information on the ring its hard to comment further do you have any paperwork on the ring ?? if you do please post it and I can at least give you a ball part if you have any of the 4 C's information

Hope this helps

DK