Crash999

RIP Darel

What has company set up and nominees got to do with tourism and sport?

My guess is this has been kicked off due to complaints about Chinese and Russian tour guides operating in Phuket.

More Anti-Foreigner Stuff?

This would also take in many expat businesses. Many of these people are just trying to live within the Law.

Thai's perceived problems with foreigners are because of shortcomings in their own people, one way or another.

Looks like it may be time to rethink any ideas about living in Thailand.

This lot are just plain greedy.

i have had my business in thailand for 8 years. thai mum from my 2 kids is 51% owner. i employ as many thais as i can. 2 have worked for me for over 5 years. all the money i make from tourists is spent back into thailand. really dont see how i am hurting thailand.

Doesn't sound like a nominee structure there. Nominees are when foreigners set up a company that normally cannot be run by foreigners here. To avoid the restriction fake/nominees Thai shareholders are used. Those people don't have any connection to the business and no control at all.

A cashier's cheque is supposed to be like cash but it can be cancelled or amended. I have personal experience with that as I made a mistake with the recipient name. I needed to take the original cheque back with me to do it though.

One thing to be careful of is that cheque processing between different provinces can be delayed. Especially if the bank is not the same. In the interim time the buyer could try some funny business with the cheque.

Would suggest cash unless it's several million baht. I bought a car cash before and although it can be disconcerting to carry around 1m baht or so it'll easily fit into a smaller tote bag.

"Secondly, setting aside 15-20% of parking spaces for paid reserved parking."

I think you will find that this is illegal as it counteracts the Condominium Act. The Parking area is common ground - that is owned by all the unit owners.

Unit owners pay for the upkeep and use of common ground via their annual maintenance fees

Plus most buildings don't have extra spaces. In theory if an owner wants to buy a car but all spaces are used including some folks who are paying the owner still had the right to park his car.

I remember reading about a startup a few years ago where people could rent out their parking allocation. That would help.

Units should have an allocation assigned to them. Commonly large units get 2 or sometimes more spaces.

In theory it should work fine. Problem is some people don't have cars, others have a few, and some people let friends park. One way to control this is to have access cards and a barrier. Room gets a certain amount of cards assigned and they are reset if cards are lost. That cuts down on random parking from outsiders.

For over allocation the only thing you can do is try to associate each unit with the cars they own by asking owners to register. Then you're left with floaters that aren't assigned to anyone- typically over allocation or non residents. At that point you can get guards involved to track down owners and ask building management to talk with them about not parking extra cars.

But good luck. This being Thailand it's difficult to stop people breaking the rules.

His report was that activities were not "transparent" & that many company officer's future profit projections were often seen through "rose colored glasses" ....

risk for me with returns not commensurate with such a big risk.

Warren B is still doing well & I've yet to hear him even mention the word Thailand ~ where the SET is down about 14% in 2015, rice

production for next year is expected to fall to 25 million tonnes from 32 million tonnes & tourism will continue to hurt badly.

My investing strategy has proved successful. Thailand ?...include me out.

I'm also not bullish on Thailand right now, but some of the things you noted aren't unique to Thailand such as business activities not being transparent. Most emerging markets have issues of poor governance and transparency- that's part of the risk associated with getting into a developing market that also has big upside potential.

Commodities including agriculture have taken a hit globally (eg. http://www.indexmundi.com/commodities/?commodity=rice&months=60) . With prices falling so low farmers in Thailand have switched to more profitable crops like corn.

Food as a whole is a bright spot in the Thai economy. There's a food fair each year at Meung Thong Thani and it's worth going to if you're interested in the market. It's the place to be for regional companies looking to export, and everyone including Chinese fly to Thailand to meet buyers here. I even saw VC-funded food companies last year exhibiting there.

You mentioned tourism continuing to hurt badly. Arrivals were up again last year despite cancellations after the bombing. In fact Suvarnabhumi is reaching the point where it gets absolutely swamped during peak arrival times. Massive queues at immigration and up to an hour long line to get a taxi.

As a whole Thailand is definitely missing out against investment in Vietnam and other attractive emerging markets. I think the market is somewhat overvalued given the current climate and looming risk. But it's not total gloom and doom.

I am, but only for LTF and RMF tax advantages on local income. Otherwise I wouldn't be. PE of almost 22 with an uncertain future, no thanks.

They're all grey market imports as already mentioned. Lexus is how they're branded in the US. They're just Toyota elsewhere.

Here are a bunch for sale: http://www.one2car.com/toyota/harrier/?min_registered_year=2012&yearrange=upto-2012

"quotes of the things said to my bereaved, heart broken family by the judges and court officials at the trial"

Why didn't reporters jump all over this if it was said at the trial?

Lots of leaping to conclusions. Yeah he admitted to taking drugs but so do thousands of other visitors who don't die.

Could be murder but it could also be as simple as an electric shock in a swimming pool as has happened to other people.

Let's wait for the facts to come out.

Remember this guy is yet to be convicted of any crime.

He deserves the respect of anyone who is innocent until proven otherwise.

Sure..... but????

"With a court warrant, DSI searched this man's house in Chiang Mai this morning and found a lot of such images, some were taken by himself and some were downloaded. The man admits that the images belong to him," said Paisith.

After he gets a lawyer I bet the story will be the images were planted by someone else and he was coerced into a confession.

Reminds me of that video of those farangs in Pattaya bashing through people as they walked on walking street. I guess the biggest guy thought he would act like an icebreaker.

He made the mistake of knocking one of the bar security aside and they leapt on him at once. He didn't stand a chance even though he was much bigger.

Reading Article 44 invoked one would think they will get multi year prison sentences or something. Not having their bikes for a week and their licenses for a month doesn't seem like much of a penalty at all.

More useful would be a point by point rebuttal.

Wasn't the alleged issue with the translator that he was just a noodle vendor so wasn't qualified?

My vote was No!! But only because the information and misinformation from the powers that

be make it impossible to make an educated judgement. So its a case of too much in doubt.

I voted the same way for the same reason. Not because they're innocent but because some doubt.

But part of the problem could be the press. Thailand isn't known for great investigative journalism. People just print whatever quotes and rumors they get. I bet only half of the info available in court has made it out in a clear way to the public. It's also easy to find mistakes in articles like even the BBC one.

I believe they are guilty...DNA is hard to dispute.....

However botched the investigation turned out to be DNA does not lie....

The DNA would prove what? Rape? Certainly not murder.

Would it be likely that two rapists would knock a man out, drag him into the sea to drown; rape a young lady and then leave her alive to be a witness?

Not suggesting the DNA test was valid, the guilt or innocence of these two or the validity of the investigation. Simply questioning your logic that in the circumstances of this case the rapists might have simply walked away and left the victim alive.

What DNA ? Were the specimens retained and test results conclusively proven ? made available to the defence and / or independent lab ? I think not . I totally agree with you i.e. DNA is hard to dispute.But there is no tangible evidence available , only hearsay . However , if rape was proven , for me they would be guilty by association as they would have been at the scene of the crime . BTW was a statement released by the defence giving the B2 account of their movements on the night of the crime as I have not seen it .

Don't forget that the defence was given the option to retest at an independent lab and they turned it down.

Until the statement by the Miller family, I would have naturally said no. That statement changed everything. If they can clearly and categorically say that after all they've been through and all the evidence they must have combed through and along with advice they must have received from the UK police, I have to say the same thing. GUILTY.

The so called "evidence" has been going through so many stages I don't think anyone in a normal court could do anything but discredit it and make a either let them go or make a retrial....

In the first reports I thought I read dna cleared them and they were released by the police.....

After a few weeks they decided the dna does match and arrested them again?

I don't know the exact facts but I hope these boys get a fair trial with a good lawyer..

If they did it hang em high..... As long as they guilty.....

There is a ton of wrong information out there. The Burmese were interviewed and DNA and fingerprints collected right after the murder happened. Same with dozens of other people. DNA testing started a couple days later and some of the first suspects like the Brit were ruled out. First arrest came a week later. And a couple days after the second arrest as the second guy had fled the island and changed his appearance.

DNA testing never ruled the Burmese out.

A further thought

The findings of the British police, who visited the scene of the crime, were never published

As a UK citizen I am allowed to criticse my own country, and I think the decision not to go public stinks, and wastes U K taxpayers money if the result is withheld

I have written to my MP

Someone posted before that the UK police can't hand over info when there is a court case pending that could result in the death penalty as it could mean that if the UK evidence was used to prove the murders then it could directly result in capital punishment.

There should have been a third option for who the hell knows.

I used to think they were scape goats because of all the news reports. But after reading the court info suddenly there was the phone, the choosing not to DNA test, the changing story about what happened that night. Either the lawyers for the Burmese are completely awful or their story doesn't hold up. But of course the police can't be trusted either. So who knows.

If the B2 are indeed guilty, how come:

1) They don't try to blame each other, in order to save their own sorry backside?

2) Why attack a girl, who is with a much stronger and bigger partner? (Plenty of single girls around, drunk or drugged out of their minds=Easier victim)

3) Why were they tried as a pair? Only one of them could have executed the blow that killed the victims!

4) Why the meaningless violence used on Hannah? Makes it personal, like a big face Thai kid being publicly rejected, not like a horny and drunk migrant worker!!

This case stinks, I don't care what "evidence" the police and prosecutor presented to the court. The officials(even the defense-team) in this case were presented with an wanted outcome of the trial by the powers. And they adjusted the "evidence" accordingly!!

1) That's not how it works here

2) It was 2 men vs 1 farang and David wasn't a big guy

3) They had both confessed to killing and raping

4) They drowned the guy and smashed the head in of the girl. If your theory is true it seems they'd have smashed the guys face in not the girl

There were 3 judge's. They were represented by the best legal minds from both Burma and thailand.they had human rights groups, journalists and millions of baht donated for a fair trial. Still the best defense amnesty international or their lawyers can come up with is they were tortured and did not have a lawyer. The one piece of evidence that they could soundly defend was the confession. The defense ignored everything else. Why? There were too many coincidences that Coul not be explained away. They were not the only ones there. They should come clean now. It's done

Don't forget after making a big deal out how the first DNA test couldn't be correct and how samples were used up when the police said there was enough DNA for a second test the defense refused.

The best they could come up with was the timing of the test seemed funny and the police shouldn't be using a police hospital to do police DNA tests. Huh!!!

https://twitter.com/olireports/status/679882939455295488'>

But this does not excuse their celebrating this verdict.

If they know something that gives reason for their opinion they should let everybody know

- so people can peacefully agree with the verdict

If not they have been brainwashed - or may be even bribed??

What a disgusting accusation.

The UK police investigation shared their findings with the family of the victims. It is for them to know and there is no obligation for them to divulge private information to whacko online conspiracy theorists.

There was no DNA belonging to the B2 on the murder weapon a hoe how can they possibly be guilty.

Because DNA only transfers on a low percentage of cases. There was zero DNA found even though the tools were used for gardening.

"the foreign news agency who wrote the story about the alleged slave labour did not actually make an inspection to the shrimp peeling shed"

Wait, what? Should be pretty easy for AP to verify that they visited the shrimp peeling facility.

Hopefully they didn't just rely on second-hand stories.