Tippaporn

Trying to do this without lawyers. We're in the process of petitioning the Thai court to be appointed administrator of the estate. The daughter is first in line to the inheritance according to Thai law. It's just that she's a minor. The mother shouldn't have any trouble being appointed the administrator. If we need a lawyer to compose a proper petition then we will certainly do that. But we believe that this should not at all be complex given the estate.

I'm truly amazed. We received a soft copy of the Consular Letter via email by 4 PM today. The hard copy is available to be picked up at the embassy with only a two hour notice so that reception can be notified of our arrival. I've rarely seen government respond so swiftly. When I sent the required documentation to the UK embassy I told my contact that if she needed anything else to feel free to ask me. I thought it wise to mention that we have certified copies of the father's, the daughter's and the mother's birth certificates. That is further hard evidence establishing the daughter as the true daughter of the father. Here is what my embassy contact wrote in reply: If you could send the birth certificates in your own time, that would be much appreciated. It is not needed for the consular letter, but it will be better to provide the confirmation of the relationship between <father> and <daughter>. So, if anyone would dare question the legitimacy of the daughter as the legitimate daughter then the birth certificates establish that with certainty. The father is listed as the father on daughter's birth certificate.

Okay. I sent an email to the British embassy requesting a Consular Letter and almost immediately received a reply instructing me to call the embassy. On the call I provided the information they asked for and they will send an email back this afternoon with a contact at the embassy. After I receive that email I will send them a copy of the father's passport, the daughter's UK passport, the mother's Thai ID card, and the police report. There is no need to have the police report translated. Once they receive those documents then I assume they will issue the Consular Letter. Hopefully we can have that by tomorrow.

Always possible but I doubt it's probable. He doesn't seem the type to spend his time on social media.

Thanks for all of the info. Very helpful. We're not far from the embassy so we may just go in person. Only because I'd like to enquire about the father's pension and perhaps they can give us guidance. In any case, I will keep updating this thread to let all know how it works out. And I may have other questions. Thanks all for your help thus far.

I'm an incurable optimist. Granted there's a great deal of effort involved but I fully expect calm seas. If the father's assets are all in Thailand and therefore this case would be resolved according to Thai law then it appears that the fraudster friend and nephew have zero standing upon which to make claims. And certainly not without either of them having to retain lawyers in order to contest the daughter's claim. Personally I doubt they would attempt to go to those lengths if the father's assets are not great enough to offset their risks, costs and efforts. That's simply my educated assessment given the entirety of the facts that are available to me. The nephew would have to be willing to travel as well. Economically speaking, I doubt he would have much to gain. Excellent advi ce. Thank you. Asking him first might prove to be the easiest solution. If he has no legal right to possess them and they are otherwise valueless to him then he may simply willingly give them up to avoid a hassle for paltry items which gain him next to nothing. It usually comes down to simple economics. If he refuses to relinquish them then certainly we'll be straight on our way to the police station. Not as yet. It's only been a few days since the father's passing, everyone involved was new to me, and I knew not whom to trust initially. Call it the fog of war. I had to do a lot of listening to many unknown facts given by many people before I could put even the slightest picture together. But I fully intend to ask for the return of the items in his possession. I do know that he wasted no time in attempting to clear the father's apartment of it's contents and bring them to his house. He attempted this yesterday but failed as the building owner required legal documentation which he did not possess. I've had a great deal of contact with him over the last two days and he exhibits all the telltales of a con artist. Everything from the constant repetition of everything to gain my trust, his incessant claims that he wants nothing out of this and is only acting on the requests made to him by the father to the swiftness by which he attempts to gain control over the entirety of his friend's estate. I am loathe to accuse someone of being nefarious without strong confirmation but given the evidences thus far it appears unmistakable. I've experience with too many people in my life who lust for money. I agree with you wholeheartedly. He is most definitely trying to work with me and he has let me know in no uncertain terms how he would manage the estate. No one gets anything without his approval. He repeated ad nauseum the fact that we are not to expect much at all as the father's estate was paltry. The repetition was a tell as it was obvious that he was attempting to condition our expectation. When asked what the father's assets amounted to he would say that it's no one's business as the money is intended only for the daughter and nephew. If that's not a red flag I don't know what is. Yes, it's a race now to safeguard the assets. An ATM allows a maximum 50,000 baht withdrawal per day and he does not have the proper documents to withdraw directly from the bank. He has the bank books so we are unable to know the balances. Though we've frozen the main account today we need to present more documentation to the bank to access the account information to view any withdrawals made in the last few days. And if he has made unauthorized withdrawals then I will hold him to account.

You may have a more tagged web than you may realize. If the mother never married to George she has very little standing other than she can stand in as the guardian to the underage daughter. If no one has a will or power of attorney then no one has legal right to direct anything, fraudster or nephew included. If the fraudster friend has the cards, phone and computer the funds may already be gone from the bank so that should be your immediate contact to freeze the accounts. You may need to take the daughter and mother as her guardian to the bank. I would be asking to get a copy of the bank statement to see if money has been withdrawn after death and if it has contact the police and make a report. Same for the UK pension. I don't know how those work but I would contact them and provide the same info about the daughter. The UK embassy may be able to provide info on that. I believe the nephew will also have little standing and can't just appoint himself the executor. A lawyer will advice but I believe the court can\will appoint an executor to oversee the disbursement of funds based on relevance of relationship. Good luck on this Another cheery post, thanks. I take it that the nephew cannot divert the father's pension as he has no legal standing. That has been a concern so to hear that is a relief. The fraudster friend has possession of the father's ATM cards, the pin numbers, his laptop, and his mobile. Can he refuse to turn these over to the daughter? I would think not for neither does he have any standing. When we get to the UK embassy then I will certainly enquire about how to proceed with the father's pension.

Yes that's correct and the court can appoint a lawyer which can be a cheaper option. My experience, approx 8 weeks to obtain letters of administration and a further 5 weeks for the Thai bank to act on them. Why that's cheerful news. An appointed lawyer would seem a good route to go since I doubt there would be any objection by the father's friend or his nephew in Hong Kong. His nephew has no interest in attending the funeral so I doubt he would make the trip to try and contest the daughter's sole right to her father's assets.

Yes, my wife has told me the same as far as the division of assets. 50% to the spouse and the remainder to be divided amongst the children. 35 ,000 baht for a lawyer seems reasonable and fair. Can you recommend him? We are in Samut Prakan and the father was residing in Phra Khanong. We went to the police station today and received the Thai death certificate. What was the procedure to have your wife's body released from the hospital? This is our next task which we will try to accomplish tomorrow. The British embassy must provide the legal document for the hospital's release, correct? I would imagine that this would be done by the embassy rather quickly as the body cannot remain long term in the morgue. Do we need to make an appointment to notify the British embassy of his death or can we simply walk in unannounced? We've already notified one bank today and had the account frozen. We need to do the same for his other bank account tomorrow.

Since I assume both George's friend, Edward, and his nephew, Charles, to be suspect then I would have to assume they would not be friendly in relinquishing the control they seek. As I've said, the Hong Kong nephew, Charles, has not replied to my emails nor does he answer his phone when other of George's friends call him. He's incommunicado to all but Edward. The last of your quote I find heartening, though, the fact that any appointment of power would follow the desire of my daughter, Alice. As, I believe. it should be since she is her father's closest kin.

Thanks. The father, George, has never been married to the mother. As George has resided in Thailand for 33 years with only one or two return visits back to the UK I would say it's safe to assume that all of his assets, other than his £11,000 pension, are located in Thailand. Which then, I assume, can be handled here according to Thai law. I'm only making educated assumptions at this point but I'll soon find out.

Yes, freezing the bank accounts is a first critical step.

Your advice to retain a lawyer sounds prudent to me. Do you have a figure that would be reasonable for a lawyer here? I'm only asking for a figure because i understand that there are unscrupulous lawyers out there who drastically overcharge. Our suspected fraudster, Edward, made off with George's computer and mobile phone. Those devices might prove to be difficult to recover if they are useful to the fraudster or if they contain information the fraudster does not want me to have. I am certain that all of George's assets are to be found on that laptop as George was known to be meticulously organized ala German fashion. Does Edward have any legal right to be in possession of these devices if Alice demands that they be given her?

Do they have them in Thailand and would you have any recommendations or know how to find one? Any ballpark figure on how much their services cost?

Every bit of information is useful to me so much appreciated.

I'll continue with some of the other complications we have to deal with and a number of other open questions. 000 We do know that our daughter's father has a UK pension which, I've been told by the suspected fraudster friend, is valued at approximately £11,000. Now here's where it gets a bit interesting. The father, whom I'll call George, was fond of his nephew, whom I'll call Charles, who resides in Hong Kong and works in the finance industry. George, though, had a not so good relationship with Charles' mother. I believe George had only one sister. But George was fond enough of his nephew, Charles, that he wanted his assets divided between Charles and his daughter, whom I'll call Alice. Now there are a number of peculiarities here. Charles was immediately notified of his uncle's passing yet has declined to fly into Bangkok for the funeral or to help in sorting out his uncle's affairs. Now George had a quite many friends, some of whom were intimately involved with him in his final months. Some of them are familiar with Charles and may have even met him. Yet when any of these friends attempt to contact Charles by phone their calls are not answered. Similarly, I've received no replies to my emails to Charles the last two days. The only friend who has been able to have contact with Charles happens to be the suspected fraudster, whom I'll call Edward. I know this for fact as I've heard from George's other friends about their inability to contact Charles and I happened to be at Edward's house yesterday afternoon whilst he was on a call with Edward. In fact, Edward passed the phone to Alice and I clearly heard the short conversation which amounted to, "Hello, how are you?" "Fine." "Well, I hope to see you sometime soon. Goodbye." Of course Charles knew I was present, knew that I had emailed him, but didn't bother to ask to talk with me. Now Edward is promising me that he will be getting power of attorney from Charles and his mother to be the executor of George's estate. Once he has that authority he will then dole out the funds and cautioned Alice incessantly not to expect any funds from the trust account he would be setting up until she was 21. Edward has repeated stated to my wife and I that George did not have a lot of money. Not much more than £10,000 or perhaps a bit more. In other words, he continually stressed, again and again, that we were not dealing with any large sum of money. I do, however, know for fact from George's other friends that one of George's Thai bank accounts had a balance of ฿700,000. Which, granted, is not an overly large sum but neither is it as insignificant as Edward purports it to be. Now is anyone else getting the feeling here that something stinks in Denmark or is it just my fanciful imagination working overtime? Of course the above details aren't the whole of all of the details. Give all of that, my next question would be what Alice, or her mother, would need to do to be able to recover her father's £11,000 pension. I'm not a British citizen so I haven't a clue.

Thanks. Will do. Yes, there certainly is the issue of what assets her father had and where they are located. I do know he has been in Thailand for 33 and in that time only returned to the UK perhaps once or twice so I doubt he had a house in the UK.

This is a rather complex situation but I'll try to keep it as simple as possible. So I'll begin with a brief backstory. My daughter's British biological father passed away this past Saturday. I've raised the girl, now 12 years old, since birth with her mother. The father more or less abandoned her but reconnected with us about two months ago. He was 73 years old with five brain tumors along with another tumor in his shoulder. He knew his time was short and wanted to make a will leaving his assets to his daughter (she was the only child he had ever had) and his 40ish nephew who resides in Hong Kong. He passed away before making out his will. That obviously creates a host of complications. I'll add, importantly, that in May of last year we were able to get our daughter her first UK passport, so she is a British citizen and her biological father has been recognized. The major complication we face now is that it appears that a long time friend of the deceased has placed himself in a position of confidence with the deceased shortly before he passed on and was given the deceased final requests verbally along with his bank books and ATM cards. The deceased entrusted this friend to be the executor of his estate. Again, this was strictly verbal so the friend does not have any legal authority. My wife had gone to the police today to obtain the official Thai death certificate and also to one of the deceased's banks to alert them and have the current ATM card canceled. Now, I believe this is mandatory for a bank to do if, as in our case, the ATM cards are in the possession of another who has no legal authority to be in possession of them to protect against potential fraud. Any confirmation or correction of this would be appreciated. Another complication is that the deceased is currently in a hospital morgue. In order for the hospital to release the body for the funeral service, given that it's a British citizen, they must first receive documented permission from the British embassy. Since the deceased's next of kin is a minor then my daughter is not able to do this. So, the information I'm looking for is what the procedure would be. And whether or not the mother, who was never married to the deceased, would be able to do this. And where we would have to go. I've kept the facts to a minimum but if there is other information I need to give in order for someone to guide us properly I will be up quite late tonight to provide it promptly. Thanks in advance and cheers, Tippers

Now that's what I call mixing it up. JVS. Variety is the spice of life.

Nice find, JVS. It ain't rock and roll but it's hard not to appreciate the immense talent. I heard the Paris Olympic Games opening was disgustingly woke LGBQT+ with an insulting anti-Christian theme. I don't agree with using the Olympics for woke, anti-Christian messaging so I have no desire to watch it. I hear the Olympics board received a ton of flak. Make the Olympics about the Olympics and leave the politicisation and current cultural issues out of it.

Sitting In The Rain never made it on the '67 Hard Road LP. However, it was included in the 2-disc remaster released in 2003. That double disc CD compiled all of Peter Green's studio contributions to Mayall and the Blues Breakers from '66 through '71. This is sweet little diddy. Great images of Mayall throughout. From those images we learn that Mayall painted the cover of Hard Road himself. Quite the artist.

Wow. Thanks for that, bannork. That was truly heartfelt and touching by Eric. I suspect John is in the process of putting together another band now. One is allowed to dream.

Alexis Korner with Up-Town off of his Kornerstoned - The Alexis Korner Anthology 1954-1983.

Alex Korner's Blues Incorporated covering T-Bone Walker's '47 classic Stormy Monday off of the '64 Red Hot From Alex LP.

Why so much Alex Korner today? Korner was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2024 in the musical influence category. Alexis Korner on 29 April '83 at the 25th anniversary of the Marquee Club with some old companions. Alexis Korner: Guitar/Vocals Ian Stewart: Piano Bill Wyman: Bass Charlie Watts: Drums Nico Korner: Guitar Shappo Korner: Vocals Ruby Turner: Vocals Jacki Graham: Vocals Mel Collins: Saxophone John Pickard: Trombone Willie Garnét: Saxophone Ted Bunting: Saxophone