Hua Hin: DSI investigate Brit using Thai nominee in alleged 240 million baht property crime

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Hua Hin: DSI investigate Brit using Thai nominee in alleged 240 million baht property crime

 

The Department of Special Investigation is probing the activities of a British man after complaints were received by 18 people who signed contracts for properties at 5 projects in the Hua Hin area. 

 

They claim that the British national was using a Thai nominee to get round land purchase restrictions for foreigners. 

 

The DSI said yesterday that no charges have yet been made but it involves property worth 240 million baht. 

 

Companies advertised houses for sale then contracts were allegedly broken with buildings unfinished. 

 

Prospective buyers among the victims were unable to install water and electric utilities due to certain irregularities in the paperwork. 

 

Both Thais and foreigners are among those who have made complaints in the matter.

 

The DSI said it was a part of their remit as it was a criminal case and one that constituted tax avoidance. 

 

No names were given though the name of a housing estate was mentioned (withheld here).

 

Source: Naew Na

 

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CORRECTION

The original version of this article posted on June 24, 2020, may have led readers to believe the person in the image used in the post was the accused, when in fact, the gentleman in the photograph is actually a major victim and complainant against the British perpetrator. Thaivisa apologises for any distress and confusion caused and is happy to correct the error.

 

[robblok]

Seems Brit crooks are as bad as Thai crooks. I am sure I wont get many likes for this one.

 

I wish t here were some tough laws for this to protect buyers. I don't mean it has to applied to foreigners only but to everyone giving better protection to buyers.

 

But I think it would be hard as the people doing such things are usually rich or have al ot of cash from cheating their clients enough to bribe a lot of people. 

 

 

[from the home of CC]

A foreigner is the last person I would do business with in this country as demonstrated time and time again. Why do these shysters believe that they can go to another country and violate its laws unimpeded? I guess ignorant greed is the motivator..

[robblok]

2 minutes ago, from the home of CC said:

A foreigner is the last person I would do business with in this country as demonstrated time and time again. Why do these shysters believe that they can go to another country and violate its laws unimpeded? I guess ignorant greed is the motivator..

To be honest i love to be doing business with a foreigner. I mean like a foreign handyman or something. I find it hard to find Thais to do a really good job. Its not a price thing but just hard to find qualified persons. I am not saying that Thais are not good as they certainly are given that some houses and other buildings look great and are built great. Its just hard to find those kind of people as they have work enough and probably don't have to advertise. 

[from the home of CC]

1 minute ago, robblok said:

Seems Brit crooks are as bad as Thai crooks. I am sure I wont get many likes for this one.

 

I wish t here were some tough laws for this to protect buyers. I don't mean it has to applied to foreigners only but to everyone giving better protection to buyers.

 

But I think it would be hard as the people doing such things are usually rich or have al ot of cash from cheating their clients enough to bribe a lot of people. 

 

 

well, the tips can be a bit light ???? so maybe those were too..

[ezzra]

Many foreigners are using nominees for the property ownership and transactions but but it's a long way between that and swindling abd cheating buyers, as far as this guy concern he's done and his goose is cooked in this country...

[from the home of CC]

2 minutes ago, robblok said:

To be honest i love to be doing business with a foreigner. I mean like a foreign handyman or something. I find it hard to find Thais to do a really good job. Its not a price thing but just hard to find qualified persons. I am not saying that Thais are not good as they certainly are given that some houses and other buildings look great and are built great. Its just hard to find those kind of people as they have work enough and probably don't have to advertise. 

Nah, I meant in the context of real estate/legal. You're correct there's not an abundance of skilled labor.

[from the home of CC]

that finance woman who ripped off the 33 million ought to have to talked to this guy, he could of showed her how to really make some feed - except there was only one big trough and it was all for him..

[blackcab]

The fact that a property company has not delivered is nothing new. There are many reasons why this can happen, but it normally boils down to cash flow. Thailand is littered with half finished developments.

 

The difference here is that it is a non Thai citizen who is involved with not delivering to Thai citizens.

 

In this case the odds are stacked against the gentleman in question. No matter how good his intentions, he will always have to deal with issues such as using nominees and tax evasion because these are the usual and expected allegations that surface in cases like these, whether they are true or not.

 

In general, property developers do not set out to deceive. If they can make good income delivering projects then it's much easier to deliver the projects.

 

Time will tell with this. It's going to be an ongoing story as it probably won't get settled quickly.

[TheDutchEngineer]

When was this? You must be really insane to invest in property in these times in Thailand with current laws and political 'development'

Edited June 24, 2020 by TheDutchEngineer

[holy cow cm]

I would like to know what went wrong and why the development of peoples houses did not follow to the end. As him having nominees I see no real big deal in that.

[worgeordie]

2 hours ago, blackcab said:

No matter how good his intentions,

I think I know what his intentions were, with 5 projects and not delivering

on any of them......

regards Worgeordie

[Jane Dough]

16 minutes ago, TheDutchEngineer said:

When was this? You must be really insane to invest in property in these times in Thailand with current laws and political 'development'

Many in the know would say now is a great time to invest.

 

Rooster

[RichardColeman]

1 hour ago, worgeordie said:

I think I know what his intentions were, with 5 projects and not delivering

on any of them......

regards Worgeordie

In a land of everyone owning a gun apparently , what sort of fool would do that ? 

[gerrybpattaya]

3 hours ago, blackcab said:

The fact that a property company has not delivered is nothing new. There are many reasons why this can happen, but it normally boils down to cash flow. Thailand is littered with half finished developments.

 

The difference here is that it is a non Thai citizen who is involved with not delivering to Thai citizens.

 

In this case the odds are stacked against the gentleman in question. No matter how good his intentions, he will always have to deal with issues such as using nominees and tax evasion because these are the usual and expected allegations that surface in cases like these, whether they are true or not.

 

In general, property developers do not set out to deceive. If they can make good income delivering projects then it's much easier to deliver the projects.

 

Time will tell with this. It's going to be an ongoing story as it probably won't get settled quickly.

"In general, property developers do not set out to deceive" Unfortunately my 20 years in Pattaya finds this statement to be wholly incorrect.

 

[BestB]

3 hours ago, robblok said:

Seems Brit crooks are as bad as Thai crooks. I am sure I wont get many likes for this one.

 

I wish t here were some tough laws for this to protect buyers. I don't mean it has to applied to foreigners only but to everyone giving better protection to buyers.

 

But I think it would be hard as the people doing such things are usually rich or have al ot of cash from cheating their clients enough to bribe a lot of people. 

 

 

Origins of the crooks are irrelevant, what is relevant is lack of laws and regulations allowing crooks to come up with scams

 

[DaLa]

One of my reasons for ‘retiring’ here was to avoid bad eggs like this from my home country. I thought all the crooks had settled in Spain.

 

Mental note to avoid English men in Thailand that can speak a little bit of Spanish.

 

 

Quieres comprar una casa  in a Sheffield accent.

Edited June 24, 2020 by DaLa
Missed a bit.

[robblok]

5 minutes ago, BestB said:

Origins of the crooks are irrelevant, what is relevant is lack of laws and regulations allowing crooks to come up with scams

 

The origins of the crook is relevant on this forum. In my experience people on this forum seem to react far stronger to crimes committed by Thais or non white foreigners then to for instance Brits. Just as you see in the post on this topic. Not that many post. I bet if it had been a Thai there would be far more post.

 

I don't really care about where someone comes from for me action is what matters not origins. The reason i bring it up is explained in the previous paragraph.

 

But your right it should not matter. 

[OnTheRun]

1 hour ago, worgeordie said:

I think I know what his intentions were, with 5 projects and not delivering

on any of them......

regards Worgeordie

If it's the same guy I'm thinking it is he was exposed a long time ago on Drummonds site. He did finish 1 or 2 developments but as you say left many more unfinished including taking a friend of mine, amongst many others, for close to 5 million Baht. The person I'm thinking of has 'history' going back at least 15 years, how he's survived so long is anyones guess.

[orang37]

14 minutes ago, OnTheRun said:

... how he's survived so long is anyones guess.

 

i see images of fat brown envelopes ... a flock of them so immense they blot out the sky ...

 

~o:37;

[bkkcanuck8]

1 hour ago, worgeordie said:

I think I know what his intentions were, with 5 projects and not delivering

on any of them......

regards Worgeordie

If that was his intention -- when the cards started collapsing -- he would have disappeared with very little to track him down.  5 projects semi-concurrent with cash flow bringing down all in the case of being over leveraged - is easy when the economy takes a big hit due to lower cash flow and lower turn-over. 

 

He will however be in deep problems if he cannot raise the case to settle with those that are owed and the police to make the case disappear...

[wensiensheng]

2 hours ago, holy cow cm said:

I would like to know what went wrong and why the development of peoples houses did not follow to the end. As him having nominees I see no real big deal in that.

Using a Thai nominee to own land in order to circumvent the fact that you as a foreigner cannot own land in Thailand, is illegal. So I guess there’s that.

[robblok]

37 minutes ago, bkkcanuck8 said:

If that was his intention -- when the cards started collapsing -- he would have disappeared with very little to track him down.  5 projects semi-concurrent with cash flow bringing down all in the case of being over leveraged - is easy when the economy takes a big hit due to lower cash flow and lower turn-over. 

 

He will however be in deep problems if he cannot raise the case to settle with those that are owed and the police to make the case disappear...

That is what you think, he could have thought he could stay here bribing a few people. Your assuming he expected getting caught. 

[Surasak]

5 hours ago, robblok said:

Seems Brit crooks are as bad as Thai crooks. I am sure I wont get many likes for this one.

 

I wish t here were some tough laws for this to protect buyers. I don't mean it has to applied to foreigners only but to everyone giving better protection to buyers.

 

But I think it would be hard as the people doing such things are usually rich or have al ot of cash from cheating their clients enough to bribe a lot of people. 

 

 

A crook is a crook, is a crook, no matter what nationality.

[holy cow cm]

16 minutes ago, wensiensheng said:

Using a Thai nominee to own land in order to circumvent the fact that you as a foreigner cannot own land in Thailand, is illegal. So I guess there’s that.

There are loop holes around that. If this is the real case then there are going to be a lot of a lot of Chinese in hot water losing their investments here..

[Rimmer]

A troll/slur has been removed

[eeworldwide]

Hua Hin is awash with these crooks from the UK buying property. Hopefully it will be like a house of cards and will all come tumbling down.

[dunroaming]

5 hours ago, ezzra said:

Many foreigners are using nominees for the property ownership and transactions but but it's a long way between that and swindling abd cheating buyers, as far as this guy concern he's done and his goose is cooked in this country...

Any of us who have "owned" property in Thailand know that you have to use a Thai Nominee as foreigners are not allowed to own land.  It is usually the wife or a good solicitor.  It's been the same for many years and accepted as the normal procedure. I built a few properties and sold them over the years, usually to foreigners.  As long as you tick the boxes and do the paperwork properly there is no problem.  Beware the corrupt officials who try to extort money out of you in trumped up "fees".

 

However there will always be the crooks and charlatans, Thailand attracts it's fair share of them as there  are plenty of scamming opportunities and plenty of naïve dummies to take advantage of.  

[tonray]

Time to pack your bags mate. The weather in the UK isn't half bad this time of year. Schemer and scammer

[dave moir]

5 hours ago, robblok said:

Seems Brit crooks are as bad as Thai crooks. I am sure I wont get many likes for this one.

 

I wish t here were some tough laws for this to protect buyers. I don't mean it has to applied to foreigners only but to everyone giving better protection to buyers.

 

But I think it would be hard as the people doing such things are usually rich or have al ot of cash from cheating their clients enough to bribe a lot of people. 

 

 

Bit of a stupid comment! All crooks are as bad as each other Brit, Thai, American what ever nationality!

Edited June 24, 2020 by dave moir
Spelling errors