NongKhaiKid

TAT are lucky the headline wasn't " Deputy PM meets tourists and starts stampede for the airport ".

What a bloody joke! As if an alcoholic and his boss's crony of a policeman could do anything to 'boost public confidence'. Makes me want to puke. Seems to me all Chalerm is good for is publicity stunts like this, which usually backfires because of the incompetant his is.

Spot on, let's hope the majority of tourists knew all about him and God only knows what they think of Thailand now they've met a Deputy PM.

Given the area he was in I'll bet his " confidence " grew as the evening went on and the ear medicine flowed, all in the interests of public relations of course.

As well as the Russians, Indians and Chinese / Japanese .... A large helping of Middle Easterns / Arabs, Eastern Europeans and Koreans, the traditional Farang is serious been squeezed out ...

A tourist official in Phuket warned last year that so many business there found themselves in a position of being totally dependent on Chinese tourist and if it that dropped off they would go out of business, He said the anti-social behaviour of the Chinese had caused both domestic and overseas tourists to move elsewhere and I suppose this can be said of the Russians although I've never had much to do with them.

That being said a friend who used to live in Pattaya went into a new bar one afternoon and a waitress warned him in was a Russian bar and he would not be welcome so he left, FAST !

"Australian immigration chiefs have denied Thai media reports that the two guards, from a private firm that runs Australia's immigration security, were asleep when he got away.

so they watched him walk away?

Painted into a corner, what's worse admitting they were asleep or trying to explain how he got away from two " wide awake guards " ?

You don't actually need an education to be a security gaurd in Australia. If you can read and write that is an advantage and may help to get a supervisor position. Serco pay the basic minimum wage of around 35K per annum compared to a police officer of around 75K

Security companies can successfully get themselves into quite powerful and irreplaceable positions. After Group 4 screwed up their contract for the London Olympics questions were raised about the amount of work they had from various government department and should they be used again ?

A security consultant put it into perspective by pointing out that many of the contracts on offer could only be handled by a company the size of Group 4 and there weren't many around so the choice was no choice and they would still have to be hired by default.

Thailand says he was being extradited and Australia says he was not being extradited but deported. Who is right and who would know more. Extradition are not carried out by private civilian firms because they have no authority. Anyway good to see he has been captured, nothing at all in the Australian media.

It has all the hallmarks of deportation, wonder if they Thais understand the difference between that and extradition ?

"Australian immigration chiefs have denied Thai media reports that the two guards, from a private firm that runs Australia's immigration security, were asleep when he got away.

so they watched him walk away?

Painted into a corner, what's worse admitting they were asleep or trying to explain how he got away from two " wide awake guards " ?

I wonder if we will ever hear his version of what happened but irrespective we may never get the full story as there's so much embarrassment to go around that no one will be in a rush to get it out there.

His suspended sentence is a waste of time as I presume he will go on the immigration computer as " Not permitted to Land " so unless he comes back on a false passport he can't enter the country to put himself in a position where the suspended sentence could be activated. Of course if he uses a false passport the authorities might never know who he really is anyway and finally there's the matter of the charges he's facing in Germany which could see him a guest of Ankela's government for quite some time.

If it is not the German drug trafficker then we may all have a good laugh when it turns out to be an Australian or a North American.

I think thais believe the world exists only of Europe where farangs come from and Asia where the rest come from. Have a Thai friend who actually thought that America and Australia were in Europe.

This is an important point given the Thais lack of real experience of foreigners.. I had a Thai friend, university educated and an excellent English speaker, who called all people with brown or darker skin and not what she perceived to be Asian " Palestinians ". I asked her why she used this description and her answer was " because they look like Palestinians ", I quit while I was ahead.

Does anyone else feel a wheel is about to come off this venture ?

Good old IN Channel have announced the robber was a " non-Thai of European descent " so they have moved from saying he was European looking to establishing his lineage. They also showed footage from the bank's CCTV which wasn't too clear so I better not comment on how his skin colour looked to me. He escaped on a motorcycle but the nationality of the getaway rider is unknown according to police.

Another baffling case for the BIB.

Some kids should be on some charges along with the teacher

Currently the school principal's head will be buried in the authorised book of excuses

He did not escape from Australian Police and he is not a fugitive. The Nation needs to get thier facts correct. They were Australian "Civilian Security Gaurds" who were escorting him and "NOT POLICE" He had served his time in jail and was released and as Australia has said, he can't be charged with escaping from lawful custody because he was not technically in custody. His offence by leaving the airport would be entering without a valid visa but Australia has no jurisdiction there.

This is all odd. Australia was deporting him. No problem with that, but why send security guards with him all the way to Germany? If he was not in lawful custody then the guards would not have any power to stop him leaving once they were out of Australian territory, would they? I don't think security guards have any powers of arrest do they? And even if they did, they would not have them outside of Australian jurisdiction.

There is no mention of any extradition request from Germany and the German police don't appear to have been interested in getting him back. This looks a complete buggers muddle before he even got into Thailand.

He has committed an offence by illegally entering Thailand etc. I believe Thai policy in such cases is to deport to the country of your nationality so he will be sent to Germany if/when caught, presumably if someone pays for the air ticket.

In the jurisdictions I have knowledge of security guards do not have power of arrest other than the limited citizen's arrest. Many decades ago in Britain there were problems with security guards carrying police type batons, even long riot batons, and it came to a head with arrests for carrying an offensive weapon as they had no lawful authority to be armed in that fashion.

Police officers do not have constabulary powers outside their own jurisdiction and if on enquiries outside their own country will be assisted by local officers who will also make any arrest necessary.

I've tried getting around this but it's heavy going so I need help, more than you realise ! It's reported he's due to face charges in Germany but the Germans don't seem to have been involved. They don't appear to have sought extradition so was this a fastrack deal that in lieu of that the Australians would simply deport him and the first German involvement would have been the welcoming committee on his arrival home ?

I think that is pretty much it. When you deport someone it is back to thier home country. The Germans know this and they probably thought why waste time and money seeking extradtion when he is going to be brought back via deportation. Just arrest when the plane lands, quick easy and cheap. I also guess that is why we haven't heard boo out of the germans because they haven't been involved.

It will spoil the day for the Thai media but the legendary Interpol of worldwide fame and fable would not have been involved as this would likely be government to government through their foreign ministries.

I've tried getting around this but it's heavy going so I need help, more than you realise ! It's reported he's due to face charges in Germany but the Germans don't seem to have been involved. They don't appear to have sought extradition so was this a fastrack deal that in lieu of that the Australians would simply deport him and the first German involvement would have been the welcoming committee on his arrival home ?

Well, at least we have a photo. I would like to see an episode of "Interpol investigates" about this. Very Keystone Kops, imho. "Without a passport, I wonder which personal ID he used to sign in with at the cafe" Since when has this been in effect? I have never been asked for any type of id.

Security gaurds not cops. Two very different things

And a dose of fantasy as Interpol doesn't investigate

Something is wrong, if he applied for a passport and was supposed to collect it in Bangkok, he had to know that he will be passing through Thailand. He had to be certain he could escape to collect the passport. I think he planned this in advance and have support from someone he knows.

I don't know anything about German passports so would he be allowed to apply from Australia for collection here or did someone here help with an application suggesting he was living in Thailand already ? I was thinking if he had sent it in from Australia direct he would have been referred to a German diplomatic mission there for issue but I really don't know.

He did not escape from Australian Police and he is not a fugitive. The Nation needs to get thier facts correct. They were Australian "Civilian Security Gaurds" who were escorting him and "NOT POLICE" He had served his time in jail and was released and as Australia has said, he can't be charged with escaping from lawful custody because he was not technically in custody. His offence by leaving the airport would be entering without a valid visa but Australia has no jurisdiction there.

Lucky he isn't a fugitive. The Thai police don't have much of a success rate with fugitives.

He is a major fugitive now as he has entered Thailand illegally, doesn't have a valid passport, that anyone knows of, and illegally opened a fire door. This is why there's the princely sum of B10,000 on offer for information leading to his arrest.

If he's caught what will the Thais do, give him to Germany, Australia or let him escape again ?

Unless this story hasn't been twisted out of all recognition, or even a little, it's hard to imagine someone who has just slipped away from sleeping escorts who could waken at anytime and raise the alarm is wandering calmly around Swampy even getting his feet massaged. I suppose it could be a mistake since all farang look alike and the suggestion he looked as if he was waiting for someone may be a telling point.

If he was waiting for someone I bet his getaway driver was Thai and late, " sorry, sorry, very traffic ".

The story has been twisted every which way in the Thai media, Here is another headline form a Thai paper.

Australia’s “Opal Bandit” Carlo Kohl Escapes "Interpol" Officers at Suvarnabhumi Airport. These civilian security gaurds have gone from security gaurd to Australian Police Officers to Interpol Police Officers. Next they will be CIA Agents.

We both know from past experience and others are catching on that there's a totally false mystique about Interpol, courtesy of TV and films, that just does not exist.

I know nothing of the Houston Chronicle but they too don't seem to mind a misleading headline as at first glance I thought he had been a navigator on an Apollo mission whereas the story would suggest he was in a support role.

Another headline worded to catch attention and get the overly explicit story read.

Unless this story hasn't been twisted out of all recognition, or even a little, it's hard to imagine someone who has just slipped away from sleeping escorts who could waken at anytime and raise the alarm is wandering calmly around Swampy even getting his feet massaged. I suppose it could be a mistake since all farang look alike and the suggestion he looked as if he was waiting for someone may be a telling point.

If he was waiting for someone I bet his getaway driver was Thai and late, " sorry, sorry, very traffic ".

Bangkok, in fact the country, needs less corruption and they could save a helluva lot more.

The Aussie Immigration Chief says he was told the guards were not asleep so doesn't that just make the situation worse as if they were wide awake how did they manage to lose their prisoner ? As they say in the newspaper business this story has " legs ".

" possibility of corruption" must be the understatement of the year so far.