500 is a bit steep, ours are 300 baht we have the same problem have to buy them from the office, and we are also not allowed to change the lock, I think they are all connected to some computer program,
Thai's know nothing about refrigeration and how to store food you will find these mom and pop shops they turn the fridges of at night, washing their hands after using the toilet it's not a Thai thing, I noticed that a long time ago, I have a friend who has a good restaurant he told me they will take stuff out of the freezer then put it back later he said to me he cannot make them understand.
I had it a couple of weeks ago, I put it down to a Dodgy toasted sandwich that I eat about 9-30 in the morning sure enough when I got the packet out of the bin, it was past it's sell by date,
Tourism is down right now, I had some family a couple of weeks ago staying in a 5 star hotel in Karon, only 5 rooms booked and at night the place was in darkness, restaurant closed,
What evidence do you have they bought from the police, Most of the guys I used to know here in Phuket the one you are referring to were legit, But only Brit's arrested?
The immigration raiding places is not exclusive to Thailand, It happens in the UK, last week in the Uk the immigration raided my Daughter's restaurant, it took 10 immigration officers to carry out the raid,
They found no illegals working there,
Down here in Phuket BOLT works fine, recently I had some family over here we had to use it a few times for us was always on time and decent cars, One day a driver turned up a a fortuna just for me,