Expat in Hua Hin stole furniture/air-con worth 40K from rented room - blames relationship with Thai wife

[webfact]

Picture: Naew Na

 

Naew Na reported on the latest interesting cases at the Immigration Bureau briefing at Suan Phlu, Bangkok yesterday presided over by IB chief Lt-Gen Sompong "Big Oud" Chingduang. 

 

High up the pecking order was the case of a French man who stole 40,000 baht's worth of furniture from a rented room in Thap Tai, Hua Hin and disappeared to Ratchaburi. 

 

The owner of the room reported to police after Fadil, 58, took the air-con unit, water heater, wooden chair(s), sofa and curtains.

 

He was staying there with his Thai wife. 

 

After getting an arrest warrant from the Hua Hin court, Prachuap Khirikhan immigration traced him to Suan Pheung district of Ratchaburi.

 

With the aid of immigration there they arrested him and charged him with joint embezzlement. 

 

Picture: Naew Na

 

He told the IB he did it with his wife. He said they had argued and split up. He said he told the owner of the room he was leaving but the owner refused to return the deposit until utilities were acounted for and an assessment of potential damage was made. 

 

But he said he needed the money right away and in a bad temper after his relationship with his wife went sour he decided to take all the items with him. 

 

A vinyl board at IB HQ that was used in presenting the case referred to the man as a "farang saep" - a foreign trouble maker. 

 

Naew Na did not report what happened to him further or what happened to his wife. 

 

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[smedly]

23 minutes ago, webfact said:

The owner of the room reported to police after Fadil

was on the fiddle 

[BritManToo]

28 minutes ago, webfact said:

High up the pecking order was the case of a French man who stole 40,000 baht's worth of furniture from a rented room in Thap Tai, ... 

 

The owner of the room reported to police after Fadil, 58, took the air-con unit, water heater, wooden chair(s), sofa and curtains.

40k sounds a bit over priced ........ more like 15k.

Wonder how much deposit the landlord refused to return?

[steven100]

33 minutes ago, webfact said:

but the owner refused to return the deposit until utilities were acounted for and an assessment of potential damage was made.

why didn't the Landlord take the utilities and any damage out of the deposit and just give it to him .....

or was the owner be_ing the usual thai ass-hole and wanted to keep all the deposit. 

[J Town]

It's the general rule to hold on to the deposit until final utilities are squared up. For the French man to take all these things cuz he "needed the money, right away" is not the landlord's problem.

[Mickeymaus]

Okay, the French guy was stealing. But is not paying back a deposit stealing too? Legally sadly not... 

[ChipButty]

I wonder if he'll get charged extra for the vinyl board?

[kotsak]

I wonder how much did their "presentation" cost.. They make it look like they've captured someone in their Top-10 most wanted list..

 

[madmitch]

12 minutes ago, kotsak said:

I wonder how much did their "presentation" cost.. They make it look like they've captured someone in their Top-10 most wanted list..

 

And the obsession with large vinyl prints. I'm sure you could go to the print shop near the police station to find out who's on the arrest list!

[NCC1701A]

obviously driven mad living in Hua Hin. 

[NCC1701A]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

"farang saep" - a foreign trouble maker. 

that would be a good forum name. 

[chuang]

Farang Saep..,55555

[colinneil]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

He said he told the owner of the room he was leaving but the owner refused to return the deposit until utilities were acounted for and an assessment of potential damage was made.

So he is just a nut job, the landlord was correct wanting utilities sorted and check for damages before he returned the deposit.

Nowhere in the OP does it say landlord refused to return the deposit.

French man was totally out of order, and is a thief.

[BritManToo]

5 minutes ago, colinneil said:

So he is just a nut job, the landlord was correct wanting utilities sorted and check for damages before he returned the deposit.

Nowhere in the OP does it say landlord refused to return the deposit.

French man was totally out of order, and is a thief.

Would point out it takes about 30 seconds for the landlord to read the meter.

Then another 30 seconds to work out the outstanding bill.

There's absolutely no reason for the landlord not to return the deposit at the same time you return the key ...... unless he intends to keep it!

[Whale]

And they say they are not biased against foreigners. Is this really newsworthy, is it worthy of all the expense of a presentation to the press?

Sure the guys a dick and deserves what he gets for a criminal act but why all the news hoopla?

[colinneil]

4 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Would point out it takes about 30 seconds for the landlord to read the meter.

Then another 30 seconds to work out the outstanding bill.

There's absolutely no reason for the landlord not to return the deposit at the same time you return the key ...... unless he intends to keep it!

Sorry disagree with you, there was absolutely no reason for the French man to steal.

No matter what the landlord did or didnt do the French man stole, there is no excuse for that.

[BritManToo]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

"farang saep" - a foreign trouble maker. 

This should translate as white trouble maker.

Although 'Farid' doesn't sound like a white person's name to me.

Maybe the police should have said 'Kairk saep' to be more accurate.

[J Town]

41 minutes ago, Mickeymaus said:

Okay, the French guy was stealing. But is not paying back a deposit stealing too? Legally sadly not... 

The landlord wasn't given the opportunity to return the refund. French man didn't want to wait until the utilities were cleared.

[Old Croc]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

With the aid of immigration there they arrested him and charged him with joint embezzlement. 

Was that because he cleaned out the joint?

[NancyL]

It's pretty standard here for it to take several weeks to get your deposit returned, while the owner waits for the final utility bills to arrive and for any work to be done to get the place ready for the next tenants. 

[khunPer]

Deposit accounting takes some time everywhere, unfortunately a behavior like what's reported here, makes us farangs look like "farang saep", sad...????

[Liverpool Lou]

3 hours ago, BritManToo said:

40k sounds a bit over priced ........ more like 15k.

Wonder how much deposit the landlord refused to return?

He didn't "refuse to return it", "he refused to return it until outstanding utility bills were paid and a damage assessment was made".  Big difference and not unreasonable.

[BritManToo]

5 minutes ago, Liverpool Lou said:

He didn't "refuse to return it", "he refused to return it until outstanding utility bills were paid and a damage assessment was made".  Big difference and not unreasonable.

I've always found landlords that don't return a deposit when I return the key generally end up keeping it. Your experience may be different. But it's the reason I never rented anywhere that wanted more than a 1 month deposit, I just considered the 1 month a tip on the years rental.

 

How long does a 'damage assessment' on a 1 room condo take?

How long does it take to calculate electricity units used x4.5Bht take?

Same for water.

[Liverpool Lou]

3 hours ago, steven100 said:

why didn't the Landlord take the utilities and any damage out of the deposit and just give it to him .....

or was the owner be_ing the usual thai ass-hole and wanted to keep all the deposit. 

Perhaps the utility bills hadn't been issued at the time and the damage assessment hadn't been done?  

 

"..or was the owner be_ing the usual thai ass-hole and wanted to keep all the deposit".

Sounds as thought the owners intuition may have been spot on and he was being very astute.   It wasn't him who was being an a_rsehole, the renter admitted that he wanted his deposit returned immediately.

[Liverpool Lou]

2 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

How long does a 'damage assessment' on a 1 room condo take?

How long does it take to calculate electricity units used x4.5Bht take?

Same for water.

Depends if he was allowed access by the renter to assess the condition of the place.   

 

Bills are calculated and provided by the utility companies, and at the moment, due to C-19 considerations, electricity bills are pegged and actual consumption is not charged for. Not many renters would simply accept the owners determination of what the bills should be!

[Liverpool Lou]

3 hours ago, Mickeymaus said:

Okay, the French guy was stealing. But is not paying back a deposit stealing too? Legally sadly not... 

The owner was not "stealing", neither was he "not paying back the deposit", he was waiting until utility bills were received and until he could do a condition assessment of the condo, both very reasonable expectations. 

[Liverpool Lou]

3 hours ago, colinneil said:

So he is just a nut job, the landlord was correct wanting utilities sorted and check for damages before he returned the deposit.

Nowhere in the OP does it say landlord refused to return the deposit.

French man was totally out of order, and is a thief.

Good grief, unbelievable, well said, colinneil!

[theoldgit]

Reported troll post removed, along with responses.

[pmarlin]

An ex US Army Captain name Al stole 50,000 baht from me so maybe I should go immigration police.

[RichardColeman]

23 minutes ago, Liverpool Lou said:

He didn't "refuse to return it", "he refused to return it until outstanding utility bills were paid and a damage assessment was made".  Big difference and not unreasonable.

Actually I think it is. There is no reason whatsoever if the landlord knows you're leaving that they cannot attend the property to see any damage prior to you leaving and agree what needs to be done and to return any deposit after agreement on any repairs, plus a small amount for potential non paid bills.

 

We lost 2 months deposit even though there was nothing wrong with the house and could not gain entry again to see damage reported after we left, even though the house was in better condition after we left