My friend comes to Thailand sometimes for holidays. He was here a few months ago and is coming back next month. He plans to fly into bkk and spend a week or so here and then cross land border into cambodia and then back into Thailand a few weeks later. 

 

Does he need to go to the consulate in London to get a tourist visa multi entry OR can he simply just do it at the borders. Are  thai immigration going to give a s**t as long as he can show ticket back to the Uk?

 

thanks

He will get 30 days visa exempt on entry at Suvarnabhumi and again when returning over the land border.

 

If that covers the length of his stay, and he has a return 'ticket' there are no issues with immigration and a Tourist Visa is not required if his second stay is under 30 days.

He doesn’t need a Tourist Visa, but if he travels without a visa the airline might want to see an onward flight (to anyway) dated within 30 days of his entry.

 

If he travels with a Tourist Visa he won’t need an onward flight. Visas are easily obtained from the Lobdon Embassy by post.

17 hours ago, bbabythai said:

Does he need to go to the consulate in London to get a tourist visa multi entry OR can he simply just do it at the borders. Are  thai immigration going to give a s**t as long as he can show ticket back to the Uk?

If your friend is after a METV (multi entry tourist visa) then yes, he will need to get it in his home country. There are a few exceptions to this, issuing METV's to none natives, but not in countries bordering Thailand.

 

If he is just looking to stay a short time in Thailand and cross to Cambodia for a few weeks, then he shouldn't need a METV. 

 

You said in your OP that your friend was here a few months ago; how many times did he do a border crossing when he was here? This could affect his travel as the new rules allow for only 2 land crossing within the period of January to January if on visa exempt.