PHOTO: Siamrath

 

By Goongnang Suksawat

Phang Nga –  A 63-year-old American man was arrested in the Tai Mueang district for 745 days of overstaying his visa. He did not leave his house for two years.

The Phang Nga Immigration Chief Colonel Phakkapong Boonchana told the Phuket Express yesterday, Sunday (December 4th ), that they have arrested Mr. Michael Scott Drannan, 63, an American national at a house in the Thung Maprao sub-district. Mr. Drannan is now at 745 days of overstaying his legal visa.

 

Mr. Drannan told officers that he entered Thailand after his retirement. He stayed at a house with an unidentified Thai woman, now his wife, before Covid -19. He grew organic vegetables for sale on 30 Rai plots of land nearby but recently stopped to grow vegetables after economic issues, according to him.

 

Mr. Drannan told Royal Thai Immigration that he knew his visa had expired so he did not leave the house for more than two years out of fear of being caught.

 

Full story: https://thephuketexpress.com/2022/12/06/63-year-old-american-arrested-in-phang-nga-for-745-days-of-overstay-hadnt-left-his-house-in-two-years/

 

-- © Copyright The Phuket Express 2022-12-06

 

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Clearly in this case not a danger to society but he still broke the law.

He will be deported back to the US.

1 minute ago, jvs said:

Clearly in this case not a danger to society but he still broke the law.

He will be deported back to the US.

It says deported and blacklisted - so never to see his wife again will be the effect - as appears he will not have financials to take wife with him.

If mandatory quarantine ever comes back then for this guy 14 days will be really easy.

Who tipped them off? 

 

 

14 minutes ago, bendejo said:

Who tipped them off? 

 

 

Very good question...wifey? bf says get rid of him..he ain't growing veggies anymore and we need money..?? tit

 

Thailand is not a forgiving regime when it comes to over stayers, it's like you have committed the cardinal sin by god forbid, overstaying... 

Sometimes you have to have a little empathy for people who find themselves in this situation. 

It is not clear if the economic issues were of his doing, or maybe due to Covididiocy.

He did realise he was on overstay, and kept his head down in order to stay with his Wife, whom, it states, carried on with the business as best she could. 

Maybe a better option would have been to go to the airport two years ago, and hand himself in. Then, once back in America, make plans to take his Wife there.

An easy thing for someone to say when they are not the one facing the options.

I for one wish him luck, and hope he can get his life back on track. 

There but for the grace of God go I. 

What a nut head! Staying home for 2 years without leaving home. What a great life he had fixed for himself. Fantastic way to retire! He should have a gold medal, and after be deported. ???? Good on him, that he also admitted working as a farmer in Thailand. Maybe they can add little bit of charges on him. Not the sharpest knife in the box.

It must have been a relief for this poor guy to eventually get caught?

Just now, Hugh Jarse said:

 

Such a silly post in response to a serious case.

20 minutes ago, AhFarangJa said:

Sometimes you have to have a little empathy for people who find themselves in this situation. 

It is not clear if the economic issues were of his doing, or maybe due to Covididiocy.

He did realise he was on overstay, and kept his head down in order to stay with his Wife, whom, it states, carried on with the business as best she could. 

Maybe a better option would have been to go to the airport two years ago, and hand himself in. Then, once back in America, make plans to take his Wife there.

An easy thing for someone to say when they are not the one facing the options.

I for one wish him luck, and hope he can get his life back on track. 

There but for the grace of God go I. 

Agree. Sometimes it doesn't take much to upset the apple cart. The report says he had already retired so you would assume he would have had a source of income. Feel sorry for the guy whatever, he's got extra problems now.

covid extension was available then, and they were quite lenient, I'm sure they could have worked something out if he turns up any time in 2020 asking for covid extension saying that he can't fly home then

even with a few weeks overstay because he didn't jump at the first chance to fix his situation or didn't know better 

 

 

A life destroyed for what ?

He made a mistake , but nobody got harmed .

 

Sometimes thai immigration should consider to act in a more humane way , and take into consideration that , really , no damage was done .

9 minutes ago, digbeth said:

covid extension was available then, and they were quite lenient, I'm sure they could have worked something out if he turns up any time in 2020 asking for covid extension saying that he can't fly home then

even with a few weeks overstay because he didn't jump at the first chance to fix his situation or didn't know better 

And he would know that how?  The headlines at the start of 2020:

 

Quote

An Immigration police patrol or new smart car announced the arrest of a 63-year-old Australian man on Valentine’s Day by dubbing him the ‘hiding kangaroo’ as the police put to use their new BMW smart cars.

 

14 minutes ago, Hugh Jarse said:

Such a silly post in response to a serious case.

If it was so serious then why would anyone impose a 2 year horse arrest sentence on themselves.  It it was indeed serious then one would have freed themselves earlier and dealt with the overstay situation to avoid a long period of being banned.  Being deported is inevitable but banishment could have been minimized if one wants to return to the Land of Smiles anytime in the near future.  

4 minutes ago, sqwakvfr said:

impose a 2 year horse arrest sentence on themselves

He was horsing around, broke the law, and paid the consequences. He could scream himself hoarse that this is all just an innocent misunderstanding.

 

But on a serious note, news stories such as this are tragic. The man looks awfully old and frail for a 63-year old; his own fault if he didn't look after himself properly. But he was probably just minding his own business at home with his wife, the Covid mass panic hurt his finances, and he might not have anyone to return to in the US. Here's hoping he gets his life sorted out soon.

 

How many more like him are out there -- but maybe in their eighties, and needing multiple assistant help, and in wheel chairs......? Should Thailand load him on a plane, with his wheelchair, and send him to an empty address in the US (or EU, OZ)? Or, should they just not try to uncover overstay recluses, doing no one any harm -- particularly if these recluses are financially stable. (A more difficult question if such folks become a drain on the Thai medical system...)

 

Hey, Thailand, why not a quid pro quo for our old, sick overstayers -- for all your illegal Thais working in restaurants in Los Angeles. A little compassion and common sense go a long way, in spite of what US Republicans spout off.... If no harm, no foul -- why dig in?

 

 

2 hours ago, lopburi3 said:

as appears he will not have financials to take wife with him.

He and his wife have 30 Rai of land so there are plenty of financials as land is worth upwards of 200k Baht/Rai. His wife could sell the land and join him later.

1 hour ago, bendejo said:

Who tipped them off? 

 

 

Smart Car. ????

6 minutes ago, Muhendis said:

He and his wife have 30 Rai of land so there are plenty of financials as land is worth upwards of 200k Baht/Rai. His wife could sell the land and join him later.

There was no indication in news story that they owned the land - only that they used it.

2 hours ago, bendejo said:

Who tipped them off? 

 

 

Possibly, he may have been registered at that address at some point, so in checking for over-stayers, the last known address of him or even his Thai wife if the property is registered to her in any way would be the obvious starting point. 

5 minutes ago, lopburi3 said:

There was no indication in news story that they owned the land - only that they used it.

Ah yes. You're right, but on the other hand it doesn't indicate they don't own it either.

I don't sympathize with him, he willingly broke then law.

 

BUT I do wish they would crackdown on the more blatant and criminal elements of non-Thai society here. How many Indian tailors street tout boys are there, how many british underworld, how many tax dodgers, how many sub-asian scammers, how many chinese mafiosa, how many burmese smugglers. They just seem to report one of these groups a week, and yet we have a "news" article about the sad retiree?

 

 

There have been similar cases of retirees running out of cash/other problems and keeping their heads down. You wouldn't expect to see news photographs of them being put on flights handcuffed. However, if they hadn't the cash for their homeward flight wouldn't they still be in the Immigration Detention Centre? Or, just maybe, they could have been shown some sympathy and allowed to 'do a deal' of some sort?

2 hours ago, jvs said:

Clearly in this case not a danger to society but he still broke the law.

He will be deported back to the US.

Maybe not. Immigration has the discretion to consider all circumstances. The guy was perfectly honest with them, that counts for something. If he's not the smartest guy he probably can't help that. No one knows what kind of emotional problems he might have, but anxiety and depression can lead someone to make bad decisions especially when fear is involved. Just my viewpoint, is all, but I think an appropriate fine without deportation would do the trick. No need to take this life away from him and send him back to the hell of America. That would be cruel and unusual punishment, especially for an older person. Again, just my view, I'm not arguing. 

Imagine the uproar and howls of protest if something like this happened to a Thai national in (insert your home country here) !

In some countries (like Canada) - within days the gov't would be profusely apologizing and trying to make things right. There'd be zero talk of deportation and certainly nothing about black-listing.

Sheesh, he/she/it would probably even be able to get a lawyer to fight the gov't and the gov't would pay for it !

We've had major criminals fight deportation orders for a decade. We've had illegal immigrants and fake asylum seekers living in 4 star hotels and suing the gov't to avoid being sent home - all paid for by the taxpayers.

Some years ago (over 20 years now) it was noted in the (Canadian) news that they thought (they couldn't come up with an accurate number) that there were over 50,000 "illegal immigrants" in the country facing deportation orders - but they had no clue where they were !

Apparently their "plan" was to simply wait and hope that some of them got arrested for some minor infraction or got into an accident or something.

I think they are scared to go after them because they know what the "left" and all the bleeding hearts will do if they were to start cracking down on them.

2 hours ago, bendejo said:

Who tipped them off? 

 

 

Wife or family is my guess, probably fed up with him in the house all day ????

Stay in the house or risk the 'smart car' !!!

2 hours ago, bendejo said:

Who tipped them off? 

 

 

The thai bf of course .... he has plans for the 30 rai plots,  maybe he's had an offer.