Kitsch22

It is not illegal to exit the UK with any amount of sterling and there are no requirements for this to be declared. All perfectly legal.

The Control of Cash (Penalties) Regulations 2007 [statutory Instrument 2007 No. 1509] says different. Quite apart from any question of confiscation those regulations provide that a failure to declare (if you have €10,000 or more in any currency including Sterling) can be punished by way of a financial penalty of up to £5,000.

I am aware you need to declare any amount of money over a certain amount (like 5k?)

Well if I go to heathrow, turn up to the desk to declare 30k, Ive been unemployed for 3-4 years, no assets, is there any reason why I should not be allowed through with it? granted, 30k is alot of money, but its not a huge amount, its just quite a big lump for a young guy who dosnt have a "sound reason" for having it.

What is likely to happen in this circumstance?

*my friend accumulated this money 100% legally.

If you are leaving EU via a UK port and are taking with you more than €10,000 (equivalent) in currency (including travellers cheques and similar instruments) then you must make a declaration to HMRC using form C9011. Additionally you must answer all and any questions that HMRC may put to you concerning the money.

It does not end there. Even if you have made the declaration, HMRC may detain/seize the money if they suspect that it may be proceeds of crime and it is likely that in those circumstances they would make an application for forfeiture of the detained cash which would be heard by the magistrates court for the area covering the port where the cash was detained.

Moreover, the same detention and forfeiture provisions apply for sums under €10,000. However, the positive obligation to make the written declaration commences only at that level.

I am having a hard time understanding why you think that I or anybody else (farang or otherwise) might wish to start chatting with any stranger whom he does not know unless there is a clear and specific reason to doing so.

Although I do not regard myself as being particularly unsociable, I find that in the course of my work I spend so much time talking to people whom I really do not like much that when I am not working I like to remain private and am inclined to speak of my own volition only with my family and friends. Indeed I would almost say that one of the reasons for being in Thailand is to avoid uninvited contact with farangs. I am not talking here about occasions when I encounter a stranger (Thai or farang) who clearly needs assistance of some kind; then I am always more than ready to offer it.

I do understand that some other people may from time to time find this attitude of mine strange or prickly. Many is the time when I have found myself sitting on an aircraft at the beginning of a flight of many hours' duration with an unwanted, unknown and garrulous fellow passenger sitting in the next seat. In such circumstances I always try to reply politely when they speak to me for the first three or four times but responding in such a way as to avoid a natural continuation of the conversation. They seldom take the hint, however, and eventually in these situations I find that I have to say something like, "I am sorry. Please do not think me rude. Please do not be offended. If I can do anything to help you at any time, please feel free to ask, but otherwise I have no interest at all in engaging in casual conversation." That does not mean that I have any animosity towards these people; I do not. And, anyway, what is wrong with lepers? Other than the leprosy, that is?

I am Black. I do not find the term offensive at all. I am also a nigger to others, I find this term highly offensive. It's the phasing out of terms like this that is at the heart of PC.

I like my coffee like my women, of a good quality, hot and sweet. I could care less how dark or light it is, I'm bigger than that. If someone gave me a Golliwog I would beat them with it, it's ignorant and offensive. If I made a doll that looked like a stereo typical Hisidic Jew with the long locks of hair comming down out of the cap, a huge nose and a penny tightly clasped in one hand, the jewish community would have it banned almost instantly. But Golliwogs are supposed to be cool???...Think pepoloe, have a lil respect, thats all PC is about.

Those who are against PC are bigots and and suffer from a inferiority complex in my opinion

"A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year". "Peace on Earth and goodwill to all Men" these are only two examples

that people who are bigots and against PC use as an excuse to justify their bias. I grew up in the States all my life I have never seen anyone or even heard of anyone having a problem with these simple terms of endearment and blessings.

And the bit about Black coffee or Black Boards being offensive and taught as being wrong...give me a break. Seriously, offensive too whom? Taught wrong where? I have never seen nor heard any of that garbage. These are just distractions thrown about by people who are against the simple common courtesy and respect that is at the heart of Political Correctness.

-reason for edit typo-

I am British. While racial prejudice is widespread throughout UK, we have no KKK, no tradition of lynching blacks and (for at least 40 years) no colour bar. In these circumstances I shall probably never be able to understand why you feel so strongly about the word "nigger". When you say you find it offensive, do you mean that the word (an alphabetical combination) is offensive or that you are offended by your perception of the thoughts in the minds of the people who use that word? How do you feel about the (apparently quite common) use of that same word by blacks referring to other blacks?

How do you feel about people losing their jobs because they have used the word "niggardly"?

How PC do you feel you are when you use your expression "I like my coffee like my women, of a good quality, hot and sweet"?

My personal fave is what my niece was told at school in Devon. Apparently you must say "coffee without milk" when ordering a black coffee now.

hahaha. Never heard that one. Thailand doesn't care about PC stuff, thats why I like it.

One of the main reasons i came here too.

You presumably arrived so recently as to be unable to remember "Darkie" toothpaste and the forced name change to "Darlie".

I must admit that this thread has confused me as well. Now I will have to read it again as it seems that Kubota opened this thread and somehow along the way morphed into Kitsch22. Are they the same person????

Kubota has been with his partner for 5 years; I have been with mine for 22 years. When somebody posts to the effect that all Thai women are crooks and that any partner who allows them to have assets of their own is an idiot, I take that as a defamation of both her and me.

Of course their are gold-giggers and thieves out there, but the blanket condemnation so common in TV is wholly unjustified.

I live in the second biggest Thai urban area, ChiangMai, but also know Nakon Ratchisema quite well. Very few Thais make more than 12k a year in either.

(apart from the scammers of course)

"Very few Thais make more than 12k a year"? What currency are you using? Alternatively, what planet are you *really* on?

The replys by the op seem to be smoke and mirrors, her property deals in the uk, what was this, tax avoidance. Your krugerands, no hers, actually gifts. you end up flaunting your wealth and trying to avoid british tax laws.

is all this look at me bs

If you have genuinely lost this money perhaps you were flaunting your cash to the wrong people you might learn to keep your personel business to yourself. Also to offset tax liability dont forget charitable donations.

You need to take more water with it. You might achieve some coherence in your observations. I have lost nothing. My wife has paid (to 07/08) all her UK tax (as have I)

We are not particularly wealthy, though we did quite well in the UK property boom while it lasted.

You on the other hand are evidently a member of the racist faction which simply cannot accept that a Thai from humble origins can achieve a decent standard of living by honest means and are consumed by bitter envy when confronted by one who has done just that.

For kitcsh22,....I still dont believe, ! .hands up all those that have a thai wife with half a mill of her own in the bank !,AND that is stupid enough to fall for this scam,A thai woman smart enough to accumulate 500k of her own would be reluctant to give it up i feel, im actually defending MOST thais, not knocking them,

Well, it is obvious that you will not believe me, but my wife has at least three bank accounts in her own name where the current balance is more than 500,000 Baht (or sterling equivalent).

And although I do not believe for one minute that she would have fallen for the scam which entrapped the OP's partner, she too can be fooled. There was an occasion a while back when I asked her to take one of her Krugerrands to the local market town to see what offers she could get from the gold shops there. She returned and proudly put a small wad of notes (10,000 Baht) in my hand and then burst into tears when I told her that she had sold the thing for less than half of what it was worth. She was foolish but she most certainly was not dishonest. But if you run true to your blinkered form, you will say that you believe that she was she was.

Although my wife would not have the greater part of her money if it were not for her connection with me, that does not mean that it is not hers.

I wouldn't believe your wife has 3 bank accounts with more than 500k each unless you told me you put it in there for her or you had a good story to explain how she came across that much cash. Perhaps she was a master scammer before she met you. Where did she get her Krugerrands? She must have been gifted them as she didn't have a clue of their worth. An ounce of gold has been over US$900 for a long while already.

Most of her money represents her retained profits from a string of property deals in UK. I lent her the money for the first one; the subsequent deals were all financed by her own accumulated profits/capital gains. She has long since paid me back in full my original loan. I introduced her to every one of the property deals but the money in her bank accounts today is hers and I have no claim on it whatsoever. 500,000 Baht would now represent only a relatively modest slice of her net worth.

The Krugerrands in England are mine. The Krugerrands in Thailand are hers because I have given them to as presents over the years. She can never remember that they come from South Africa even though I have told her a hundred times. When she made her ill-advised sale a Krugerrand was worth approximately £400 sterling. The current price is approximately £220 more than that but if you were to ask her she would (I think) probably still quote you a figure of 20,000 Baht. But now she would not sell without asking me first.

She will probably be okay as long as I am alive. My two great worries arise upon my death. Firstly how to minimise her loss by way of the Chancellor's Inheritance Tax take from my estate. Secondly how (in a jurisdiction where there are no trusts) to create a mechanism to make sure that she does not get taken to the cleaners by some other thief.

For kitcsh22,....I still dont believe, ! .hands up all those that have a thai wife with half a mill of her own in the bank !,AND that is stupid enough to fall for this scam,A thai woman smart enough to accumulate 500k of her own would be reluctant to give it up i feel, im actually defending MOST thais, not knocking them,

Well, it is obvious that you will not believe me, but my wife has at least three bank accounts in her own name where the current balance is more than 500,000 Baht (or sterling equivalent).

And although I do not believe for one minute that she would have fallen for the scam which entrapped the OP's partner, she too can be fooled. There was an occasion a while back when I asked her to take one of her Krugerrands to the local market town to see what offers she could get from the gold shops there. She returned and proudly put a small wad of notes (10,000 Baht) in my hand and then burst into tears when I told her that she had sold the thing for less than half of what it was worth. She was foolish but she most certainly was not dishonest. But if you run true to your blinkered form, you will say that you believe that she was she was.

Although my wife would not have the greater part of her money if it were not for her connection with me, that does not mean that it is not hers.

I know the fella in Phuket jail. The 7.5 year stretch Welsh dealer.

After 5 (or 7) years as Mr Farang Police, I think Captain Howard should speak and understand more Thai (considering his position)

love it when he tries to speak thai. his tragic attempts really make you wonder how he is aiding communication in any way at all.

Howard Miller speaks to drunken or otherwise inebriated farangs in a language which they understand and in a manner which they perceive to be sincere and well-intentioned; in doing so he performs a very valuable function.

He gets a black mark for slapping the Kosovan (who nevertheless richly deserved it). And I cannot understand why he stated that most Thai drivers do not have licences - is there any basis for such an allegation?

He would be more useful if he had a better command of the Thai language, but at least his attempted pronunciation of "Pattaya" is better than that of most of the farangs who live there.

What stinks is a farang whose determination to condemn an innocent (albeit foolish) Thai girl is so overwhelming that the farang irrationally refuses to accept the fact that what she lost was her own money from her own bank account.

Rubbish,.and ill tell you why, my wife and i consider any money we have OURS,the loss at best is mutual, although i doubt it,.....and i say again any money decisions/transactions involving this sort of amount should be shared ,this wouldnt have happened had he been aware,.

That is you and your wife. This girl's partner says that it was her money in her account. Why do you persist in calling him a liar and her dishonest?

I didnt call anyone a liar, however this is up for scrutiny dont you think, and married or not, she should have consulted him on the sale of HIS house,with attitudes of some its no wonder these problems exist,.

You said "the loss at best is mutual, although i doubt it"; the OP has stated that the loss was of the girl's own money from her own account. If you say to the world that you doubt the truth of what he says, then you are calling him a liar. You should stop digging. Better accept the fact that there are Thais who are honest, just as we must accept the fact that there are farangs who are racially prejudiced bigots.

Greetings. After being unable to sleep twice going to and then from Mukdahan I've begun to wonder whether travelling at night is the better option. What do you think and why?

Night travel is marginally less terrifying. When approaching a blind bend the driver is warned of oncoming traffic by headlight haze.

think your find they are referring to underground, illegal casino's of which there are many

I think you'll find the reporters and lawyers don't have the foggiest clue as to whether there are casinos, Las Vegas style or not, in Thailand. It seems far more likely that the woman didn't gamble away $3 million and simply stole it when her husband transferred it to her account and gave him the boot.

Of course she didn't. But it sounds good when the convict's barrister serves it up in mitigation. Same as the nonsense about investment laws in Thailand. The criminal was a lawyer and took elementary steps to put the proceeds of his crime beyond the reach of the law and, perhaps, to avoid the imposition of a confiscation order in addition to the prison sentence.

It stinks,why didnt she call you BEFORE handing the money over ? ,my wife would not part with a bean without consulting me first,.i dont think we have to ask whos 500k it really was she handed over ( if indeed it was ),,if i were you id be on the first plane over to reaccess it and get it secured,

What stinks is a farang whose determination to condemn an innocent (albeit foolish) Thai girl is so overwhelming that the farang irrationally refuses to accept the fact that what she lost was her own money from her own bank account.

Rubbish,.and ill tell you why, my wife and i consider any money we have OURS,the loss at best is mutual, although i doubt it,.....and i say again any money decisions/transactions involving this sort of amount should be shared ,this wouldnt have happened had he been aware,.

That is you and your wife. This girl's partner says that it was her money in her account. Why do you persist in calling him a liar and her dishonest?

It stinks,why didnt she call you BEFORE handing the money over ? ,my wife would not part with a bean without consulting me first,.i dont think we have to ask whos 500k it really was she handed over ( if indeed it was ),,if i were you id be on the first plane over to reaccess it and get it secured,

What stinks is a farang whose determination to condemn an innocent (albeit foolish) Thai girl is so overwhelming that the farang irrationally refuses to accept the fact that what she lost was her own money from her own bank account.

Who's money was it by the way? Who's 500k was it...

Its a very lot of Money for her to have had access to, and a very lot to withdraw at one time.

Its a very strange story indeed.

It was her money in her account, she was suppose to buy some land next month for this money. And the house is in a company name without her name on any documents, so yes i asked her to take care of a potential buyer if he comes along, so she did not try to sell the house herself.

She had to to the bank to get the money, and like somebody said " it's not easy to withdraw that amount of money" yes it is!!

She is very distressed about this, a huge loss of money for her. For the satisfaction of some repliers i did not loose a single satang.

I will call later and check if they found anything on the video tapes

So at the very worst she has been gullible and has been scammed and has lost her own money. What is your take on the TV contributors who from their ingrained prejudice jumped to the conclusion that she was a crook?

It would be beautiful poetic justice, if only for the fact that Ms. Renson's relatives will never receive their rightful inheritance. Wow, what a compete fool. His wife too. How could he not know that this would come back to haunt him? I guess he was counting on being able to hide out in Thailand with all that money for the rest of his life, but didn't count on the astounding scope of his wife's gambling habit. Amazing.

Of course the relatives will receive every penny due to them. The first £1 million of loss (at least) will fall upon all the honest solicitors who are obliged by law to contribute annually to the Solicitors Compensation Fund. Any remaining deficit will be paid by the firm where the fraudster worked.

Let me get this straight, your girlfriend of five years is selling your house (you don't mention if this is with your approval or not?), a woman comes around and says her sister will be around later, the sister turns out to be five guys? The five guys convince her to go to the bank while they wait outside so she can get 500K to give to them? did she tell you <deleted> the 500K was for?? The guys are supposed to come back later with the deposit for the house?? My friend, your girlfriend has a very poor imagination if that is the best story she can come up with!!!!

Tend to agree with this and would like to know the OPs response to the high lighted question

It is all a bit odd, normally when Thais tell lies nothing about their story makes sense, a bit like this case really.

PS I and most of the other posters here i am sure sympathize with your loss of a substantial amount of money, for what ever reason.

Unless the OP is Thai, the house cannot be "his" in the sense of legal ownership. If the money paid to the con-artists came from a joint account (how else could she have withdrawn it?) then upon what basis has the girl stolen any money from him (or anyone else for that matter)?

And all the sage TV advisers who recommend the OP to ditch his wife presumably accept that such an action may perhaps amount to an abandonment of his house as well?

Owing to Thai laws about foreigners' investments, Franklin transferred the stolen money into an account in his 32-year-old Thai wife's name.

Mr Castle told the court: "His Thai bride then embarked on a spending and gambling spree and spent the lot of the money in casinos in Bangkok."

Shurely shome mishtake on the part of my learned friend?

Over one third of UK pensioners elect to live abroad and a popular view is that those peeps do not want to live in the UK any more - for a variety reasons. One of the prime reasons is that they cannot afford to. Whose fault is that? Those who elect to live abroad have been disenfranchised so that the politicos think that they can get away with anything.

The standard of care of the elderly in the UK is a disgrace and comes nowhere near what is available in Thailand for very little money. Who hasn't seen an old guy getting around with the aid of a walking frame tended by a nice Thai lady? She will do everything for him at a fraction of the UK cost of such a service. Others have pointed out the savings made by UK PLC when people pack up their tents and move and asking the Gov't to invest some of the money saved would make economic sense, may even encourage others to leave resulting in even more savings. In doing so they also assist in freeing up the housing market.

One thing that would bring the UK Government to its moral senses - if they could find the time after fiddling their expense claims that is - is for hordes of ex-pats to turn up at Heathrow stating that they are destitute and returning to the UK on a permanent basis and then making every possible claim against the Exchequer.

Ask not what your country can do for you but what can you do for your country. Pure rhetorical BS. After surviving the London Blitz and the V weapons, enduring the privations of food and fuel shortages, getting in harms way in Korea, Suez, Malaya and then Indonesia, and paying NI contributions in full, I don't think that I am being greedy in expecting a reasonable return on what I put into UK PLC.

N.B. I have not brought in a red herring mention of black, lesbian single mothers - but am thinking of becoming one.

"A reasonable return on what I put into UK PLC"? If you provided sensibly for your old age by saving and if you have invested your savings sensibly, you will or should now have available to you the benefit of that capital and income.

Your past National Insurance contributions in UK were not savings; they were payments to the government of the day of a particular kind of tax.

In UK there is a general policy (not superbly implemented, but better than nothing) that people living within the territory should be saved by the state from utter poverty and destitution. The safety net is slung at a fairly low level, but it is there and nobody starves.

Your statement that you think that the standard of care for the elderly in UK is a disgrace seems to imply that you think that I (who have made provision for my own old age and who am ready if and when required to care for my own parents) should be required to pay for more than basic and essential support for people who (or whose families) have failed to make adequate provision for themselves. As matters stand I am prepared to chip in to keep them housed and marginally above the breadline but I do not understand why I should be required to contribute to a higher standard of luxury than that.

If you think that the situation in UK is disgraceful then what is your view of the comparable situation in Thailand? The fact of the matter is that an expat pensioner having moved from UK to Thailand even without inflation proofing receives a sum sufficient to attract envy from the majority of Thais of similar age.

Catterick

Nighty Night

I am surprised they didn't block it for contempt of court. Thaksin apparently criticised the Supreme Court for convicting him for the trivial matter of giving spousal consent to his wife's land purchase from a state agency in a rigged auction at an artificial low price when he was prime minister. Under Thai law criticising a court decision is for better or worse a criminal offence.

Then presumably if an appeal judge overturns a lower judgement because it was wrong, then the appeal judge will be prosecuted?

And then what would happen to the prosecutor when he criticises the words of the appeal judge?

It makes me sick while waiting at Suvarnabhumi airport and witnesses so many disgusting things.

A few days ago, an "official" guy (around 30 years) with an AOT badge, shouted at a child to show him cash money. The child (maybe 5 years old) was with his mother (I think Arab people) and she could not speak English very well. Apparently they did not have a flight the same evening anymore. The AOT man said he could arrange a 3 star hotel in BKK at 250 US$ for a few hours but he could not accept a credit card, only cash. The mother showed her CC to him. He shouted really hard at the child, "give me money, give me money, show me cash, only cash, 250 US$ cash cash, no credit card, show me CASH CASH"…… I wanted to take a picture but he was looking really angry at me. I have a lot of pics from "bad things/ bad people" at the airport and one day I will do something with it.

All this happened in front of a Thai Airways counter while the staffs (3 people) were watching the guy. No one did anything. Half an hour later, I went back (I think the man closed his deal) to complaint and told my grief at the very same Thai counter. The only thing I got back was a stupid smile and a "mai penrai", take it easy sir.

TIT, this is Thailand.

This has to be the biggest crap i have ever read on thai visa.

There is no way a scammer would shout at a child like that with his parents attending, He would be scamming the adults not using the child in full view of everyone.

I also have seen a very similar situation on a couple of occasions to the OP's, where kids are a fair target (the 'marks brood' or the Scammers confederates children) thru the last couple of years

- so perhaps your omnipotence is a tad faulty, IMHO.

......and if you read many more historic threads on TV, there are certainly much more valid candidates for your 'Ordure Award'....

the great and the gross; the cream and the crass; the whole gamut of humanity reside here on the forum...... including a fair sprinkling of Mr Angry Know It Alls.....

TIT.

Brewsta

I beg to differ.

Using the aforesaid airport more than most of you on here, I am sure i would have seen at least once in my travels.

Well, the story is strange, is it not?

1. How is it that a 5 year-old child of an Arab mother speaks adequate English (enough to understand "money", "cash", "Dollars" and "credit card") when his mother does not?

2. How would the supposed AoT official know of the extraordinary linguistic prowess of the infant?

3. If the mother could not comprehend what was being asked, why did she produce her credit card?

Not an expert but there appear to be 2 choices of things to believe.

1. Someone useful enough to know how to edit sound files but doesn't know that machine location is embedded in the file.

2. Someone useful enough to know how to edit sound files and who knows precisely that machine location is embedded in the file, and how to make sure the information says what people want to hear.

On balance, which is more likely?

3. Someone not very useful at all.

Readily available software means that a high quality mash-up of a politician's words should be within the reach even of a talented amateur. Like this fellow: