Friend In Need

[Prakanong]

There is a whole host of issues surrounding teachers and fake degree's or required qualifications to to teach.

If Thailand wants qualified professional teachers it might have to pay more than a paper boy's salary to get them.

Just as in other positions, industries etc there are a whole lot of people willing to work in Thailand for a lot less than they would expect elsewhere - it is Thailands "Added Value" that attracts them.

Teaching just seems to be the easy touch in Thailand for wanting to stay but Thailand really needs to set whatever standards it wants, know the costs of those standards and meet them.

As for the OP's pal - as Bendix said try to work it out in a mutually convenient way then skedaddle as he would like - try to find an intermediary to negotiate if required.

[davejonesbkk]

Yeah like I said before this guy just wanted to teach and unfortunately didnt have the shiny white piece of paper. He always taught at Gov. schools so Im not too sure about parents paying millions of baht for him to 'falsely' teach their children. Getting fake degrees is wrong, but going to jail for it? I think that's a bit extreme...

[Scott]

First, leaving Thailand is probably not that difficult. If he crosses into Cambodia, he can then report his passport stolen and go to Embassy for a new one, meanwhile arranging a flight out. Malaysia and Laos have better record keeping systems, so he might want to try Cambodia.

My problem is that this is a "good" guy, he's not a criminal etc. Well he is. He not only faked one degree, he faked 3. He is wanted by the police and now he's evading arrest. He (or his friend) are contemplating breaking immigration/visa laws etc. (All with our help, I might add)!

By the way, the police occasionally do get their knickers in a knot over things like this. First of all, it's good PR, secondly, it's foreigners getting in trouble and not some local with family or connections. These cases are great for the police and their easy and names and reputations are made. Please remember, very, very seldom is the school or agency mentioned.

[cdnvic]

You want this guy hanged for using fake id's

I didn't say this.

[Prakanong]

The whole issue of faked documents etc is gaining wider importance in the post 9/11 world plus good corporate governance!

Thailand as with other countries wants to raise certain standards while keeping any eye on individuals I suspect.

Its happening all over now.

PES - Pre Employment Screening is getting quite strict and thorough at many company's as well now. Degree's are being checked as are any gaps in CV's or embellished CV's. This is not just for high level board members - you will b surprised at how far down the organisation it goes in certain indistries now and not just security but across the board.

It used to be fake degree's and a few months/years teaching in Thailand were seen as OK, fund the lifestyle a bit, make some money to travel on.

Many things coming together are making this less of an option now.

I am sure the OP's pal is not a villain and not any threat to society. He was just doing what thousands upon thousands of other have done and have been encouraged to do. Best thing is to accept times have changed and will be changing more and to extrcate himselfs as he wants to do from this position.

[Heng]

What a waste. If you're going to have to make a clandestine exit from a country, at least make it worth it and not over teaching on a fake degree.

[Prakanong]

What a waste. If you're going to have to make a clandestine exit from a country, at least make it worth it and not over teaching on a fake degree.

Hmmm - he will not get a publisher like that Aussie drug smuggle with that story will he ;-)

Might be lucky to get a pint bought down his local

[toptuan]

• three fake degrees
  

• employment under false pretenses
  

• living a lie over an extended period of time
  

• modeling "you can do it your own way without paying your dues"
  

• probably telling students not to cheat, when he is at the same time doing it
  

= a "decent bloke?"

Escaping will only reinforce your own notion that you can always weasel out of any bad situation you've managed to weasel yourself into. What's next? Performing surgery without a license? It's been done.

Do the crime - pay the time. That's how to rid yourself of making poor choices.

Edited July 11, 2007 by toptuan

[bendix]

why are we all getting ourselves twisted up over this? Does anyone really think the police are issuing arrest warrants for some dodgy farang with a couple of fake degrees? Jeez, half the teaching profession in Bangkok will be caught in the dragnet? Nana Plaza will empty overnight, and Friday barbeque buffets will remain uneaten.

Tell him what I said before. Go to the cops. Pay 3000 for a couple of bottles of Johnny Walker black and get it sorted.

[Momo8]

OP are you sure there isn't something you are leaving out of this story? Seems extreme unless there is something your friend is not telling you.

[jayjayjayjay]

No sermons here.

Where so many miss the point is the system has been played for so long, much of this became the norm rather than the exception. Those caught doing wrong now would not have been caught doing so 5 years ago. So, a nice guy is in a serious predicament.

Recommendations. Your mate travels to Cambodia. Before leaving, engage a really good Law firm, SunBelt Asia......... note their connections with ThaiVisa. Have them handle the case while he is remote in Cambodia. Fund the legal case properly.

Regards,

Jeff

Edited July 11, 2007 by jayjayjayjay

[Prakanong]

why are we all getting ourselves twisted up over this? Does anyone really think the police are issuing arrest warrants for some dodgy farang with a couple of fake degrees? Jeez, half the teaching profession in Bangkok will be caught in the dragnet? Nana Plaza will empty overnight, and Friday barbeque buffets will remain uneaten.

Tell him what I said before. Go to the cops. Pay 3000 for a couple of bottles of Johnny Walker black and get it sorted.

I thought Nana Plaza was too expensive for teachers on paper boy's salary's now????

Thing is though - they might just start looking at other peoples claimed qualifications and experience apart from teachers - plenty of fakirs and snake oil salemen in other positions

[digitizerob]

First off, you can teach in Thailand without a degree as long as you have a TEFL and the newly required MOE Thai cultural certificate. But things are gonna get really bad for schools in the near future as teachers will need a non b, original degree + transcript, TEFL, MOE cert, police report.

why's it a prob, well there are many schools in remote areas that won't be able fill these vacancie's and thats just the outskirts of Bangkok. Who in there right mind is going pay out for flights, certs, permits, police reports for 40,000 salary if your lucky enough not to get shafted.

If you've ever worked in the ESL teaching industry, degree or no degree is irrelevant. It only becomes a requirement when your teaching a specialised subject, say at University, which is an even bigger joke as you get paid more for teaching 3 year olds rather than undergrads.

[Prakanong]

"First off, you can teach in Thailand without a degree as long as you have a TEFL and the newly required MOE Thai cultural certificate. But things are gonna get really bad for schools in the near future as teachers will need a non b, original degree + transcript, TEFL, MOE cert, police report."

Just out of interest - how will this affect peole "Grandfathered" in without the degree.

In another thread I was told they were OK for now as long as they did not change jobs but what about the future??

[qwertz]

why are we all getting ourselves twisted up over this? Does anyone really think the police are issuing arrest warrants for some dodgy farang with a couple of fake degrees? Jeez, half the teaching profession in Bangkok will be caught in the dragnet? Nana Plaza will empty overnight, and Friday barbeque buffets will remain uneaten.

Tell him what I said before. Go to the cops. Pay 3000 for a couple of bottles of Johnny Walker black and get it sorted.

I'm all for this option.

Money talks loud in LOS.

The guy's a petty offender but the cops will think nothing of throwing him in the slammer to meditate on his misdeeds.

He's going to have to bite the bullet and scrape his cash together for palm grease to avoid that eventuality.

If he thinks buying his way out hurts, perhaps he's never seen a Thai slammer.

Thais call it the monkey house and while I agree there are similarities, trust me, monkeys get better treatment.

Help your local police, bribe a cop today.

[jayaybee]

Firstly, thanks to Dave the OP for starting this and everyone who has contributed. I am the person in question who finds himself in this unfortunate pickle.I started teaching in a well known disreputable language school about eight years ago.For the first year I had no idea that I even needed a degree and didn't have a clue what a TEFL certificate was.After a year I was told the school in question would supply me with fake documentation as the owner had a "connection" in the Ministry of Labour. I never saw the original certificate but signed the photocopies.

Fast forward a couple of years, I was working at a top 10 government school for a year for the same agency owner when I decided I wanted to work directly for the school. They were more than happy as I had consistently proven I was more than capable to do the job better than most.When the school realised I probably didn't have real certificates,fake documentation was provided for me by one of the senior teachers there,again I didn't see originals but merely signed the photocopies supplied by this top 10 government school.

Moving forward another couple of years I decided a change was in order and became a home room teacher on the recommendation of a friend of mine who was the head of department there. I was employed not directly by the school but by another agency.I went to Khao San Rd on the advice of my friend and duly recieved my dodgy documents.I worked at this school for the rest of that school year and left on good terms to seek a new opportunity in Minbury as I was sick of living in over priced one room apartments and wanted to live in a house.I worked here off the books on a part time basis and got on very well with the owner of the school, a judge.It was while I was working here that I recieved word from the previous school that Immigration or Ministry of Labour police had been in to arrest me after a random check had proven my documents were fake.As a follow up they informed me that warrants for my arrest had been issued and were waiting for me at the airport.As I understand it the maximum sentence for using fake documentation is 3 years per document.

I never gained employment at the expense of a fully qualified teacher as all my jobs were gained through personal recommendation of my teaching ability.Bear in mind, for the majority of the time I was teaching very basic English language, or as a home room teacher, basic maths / science to nine year olds.I've always hated having to live a lie, but the simplistic "go home and get a degree, then come back and teach" option wasn't very appealing. My schooling was so bad that I would now have to study for three years just to get to university,then four years to obtain a degree, to come back to Thailand to work for 40 000 Baht!

The fact that I have been a successful and well respected teacher at every place I've worked,in spite of having no education to speak of,suggests that natural ability, empathy and a dedication to self improvement are sometimes more important in the classroom than a degree in accountancy or particle physics. Schools in Thailand are woefully underfunded and cannot pay the salaries required to attract the tens of thousands of foreign teachers needed. A better solution surely, would be for the M.O.E. to introduce it's own training course for teachers who are teaching simplistic English. A TEFL, CELTA or similar should also be a must as these directly relate to the job in question, but a four year degree in some completely unrelated field is ludicrously irrelevant and discrimanatory in a country that is crying out for people to teach basic grammar and conversation.One hopes that eventually common sense will prevail as it is the kids who ultimately pay the price for the M.O.E.'s lack of vision.

Yes, in my case laws have been broken, but when " the law is an ass " is that so wrong? I believe the concept of justice is that when a person is victimised by another, the perpetrator must suffer the consequences of their actions. As far as I see it, mine is a victimless crime, in fact many thousands have been helped by my eight years of work here.If there is no victim, then where is the crime?

Any advice, comments or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

[markr]

Firstly, thanks to Dave the OP for starting this and everyone who has contributed. I am the person in question who finds himself in this unfortunate pickle.I started teaching in a well known disreputable language school about eight years ago.For the first year I had no idea that I even needed a degree and didn't have a clue what a TEFL certificate was.After a year I was told the school in question would supply me with fake documentation as the owner had a "connection" in the Ministry of Labour. I never saw the original certificate but signed the photocopies.

Fast forward a couple of years, I was working at a top 10 government school for a year for the same agency owner when I decided I wanted to work directly for the school. They were more than happy as I had consistently proven I was more than capable to do the job better than most.When the school realised I probably didn't have real certificates,fake documentation was provided for me by one of the senior teachers there,again I didn't see originals but merely signed the photocopies supplied by this top 10 government school.

Moving forward another couple of years I decided a change was in order and became a home room teacher on the recommendation of a friend of mine who was the head of department there. I was employed not directly by the school but by another agency.I went to Khao San Rd on the advice of my friend and duly recieved my dodgy documents.I worked at this school for the rest of that school year and left on good terms to seek a new opportunity in Minbury as I was sick of living in over priced one room apartments and wanted to live in a house.I worked here off the books on a part time basis and got on very well with the owner of the school, a judge.It was while I was working here that I recieved word from the previous school that Immigration or Ministry of Labour police had been in to arrest me after a random check had proven my documents were fake.As a follow up they informed me that warrants for my arrest had been issued and were waiting for me at the airport.As I understand it the maximum sentence for using fake documentation is 3 years per document.

I never gained employment at the expense of a fully qualified teacher as all my jobs were gained through personal recommendation of my teaching ability.Bear in mind, for the majority of the time I was teaching very basic English language, or as a home room teacher, basic maths / science to nine year olds.I've always hated having to live a lie, but the simplistic "go home and get a degree, then come back and teach" option wasn't very appealing. My schooling was so bad that I would now have to study for three years just to get to university,then four years to obtain a degree, to come back to Thailand to work for 40 000 Baht!

The fact that I have been a successful and well respected teacher at every place I've worked,in spite of having no education to speak of,suggests that natural ability, empathy and a dedication to self improvement are sometimes more important in the classroom than a degree in accountancy or particle physics. Schools in Thailand are woefully underfunded and cannot pay the salaries required to attract the tens of thousands of foreign teachers needed. A better solution surely, would be for the M.O.E. to introduce it's own training course for teachers who are teaching simplistic English. A TEFL, CELTA or similar should also be a must as these directly relate to the job in question, but a four year degree in some completely unrelated field is ludicrously irrelevant and discrimanatory in a country that is crying out for people to teach basic grammar and conversation.One hopes that eventually common sense will prevail as it is the kids who ultimately pay the price for the M.O.E.'s lack of vision.

Yes, in my case laws have been broken, but when " the law is an ass " is that so wrong? I believe the concept of justice is that when a person is victimised by another, the perpetrator must suffer the consequences of their actions. As far as I see it, mine is a victimless crime, in fact many thousands have been helped by my eight years of work here.If there is no victim, then where is the crime?

Any advice, comments or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Great post! I wish you the best of luck

Mark

[digitizerob]

I second that, best of luck mate.

Also, if i were you, go to the border with a Thai friend - make out you have overstayed and you want to pay, your really sorry. say that your going to visit malay/cambo for a few days then show a forwarding ticket to England.

Have some tea money in a envelope that your Thai friend can bargain with if all else fails. i think that should do it.

[gburns57au]

Jayaybee,

By your own admission you have been using fake documents for near on 8 years....You also knew that it was wrong.

Please dont try to muddy the waters with your justifications.

Just because you dont agree with the Thai Laws dont make them an Ass...it just makes you an Ass cause you broke the law and expected to get away with it.

And now you and Dave come here looking for assistance on how to avoid the penalty that you deserve. You are looking for the easy way out... you know what the right path is, and that is to surrender yourself, plead guilty and hope for a reduced penalty....But if you were going to do this, you would have already got a lawyer.

And to all those who have suggested skipping the country.....you are assisting a felon...that too is a crime.

[roietjimmy]

1) You have broken the law regardless of how you feel about the law. "When in Rome blah,blah,blah"

2) "Apparently" warrants have been issued related to having broken the law.

3) You have overstayed your visa.

The second, 2) is clearly the frightening one. So far as I can see in this post even you are not sure if this is really the case in saying you "recieved word" the police were looking for you. Verification that the warrants exist is key. You mention you got along very well with "the owner a judge" of the last school you worked. It would be simple for a judge to find out if such warrants exist. Suggest you approach him through a Thai friend to see if he will help find out the facts regarding the warrants. If there are no warrants then all you have to worry about is your overstay, a relatively minor but moderately expensive issue. If the warrants do exist then you will have to resort to some of the other options suggested. Getting good legal counsel, while potentially pricey, tops my list. Sneaking across the border is at the bottom. If you think you have problems now, picture a few years in a Lao, Cambodian, Burmese or Malaysian prison for illegal entry!

You seem to have fallen into the traditional Thai way of faking your way through the system. This worked in the past and still sometimes does but as pointed out by one of the responders it is slowly, sometimes imperceptably, changing.

Wishing you the best of outcomes.

[mrtoad]

Jayaybee,

By your own admission you have been using fake documents for near on 8 years....You also knew that it was wrong.

Please dont try to muddy the waters with your justifications.

Just because you dont agree with the Thai Laws dont make them an Ass...it just makes you an Ass cause you broke the law and expected to get away with it.

And now you and Dave come here looking for assistance on how to avoid the penalty that you deserve. You are looking for the easy way out... you know what the right path is, and that is to surrender yourself, plead guilty and hope for a reduced penalty....But if you were going to do this, you would have already got a lawyer.

And to all those who have suggested skipping the country.....you are assisting a felon...that too is a crime.

Fully agreed. Anyway, what I don't understand is if he was working in a Govt school it is not necessary to have a teaching licence and therefore, not so much of an issue about presenting credentials. My understanding is that there are still a lot of teachers who have been here a number of years teaching without needing to submit false documentation and who do not have degrees and are here legally.

He has already admitted that he has been here a number of years so he has had ample time to undertake course such as TEFL or CELTA if that has been his chosen career path which would have enabled him to get legal. Now, things have tightened up more so, then yes it's more difficult to work legally but that is precisely what the rules are for - to keep out the bogus degree holders.

Edited July 11, 2007 by mrtoad

[OxfordWill]

Those of you taking your time to enjoy imparting sermons and moralising from the high ground would do well to consider what, if any, impact your comments will have on the individual in question and the OP. Neither of them have come here for moral wisdom and particularly neither have asked for deliberations on prudence. Do you sincerely believe anything you say in this thread will have the slightest impact? Would -you- take moral advice from a stranger on the internet? No? Then why do you give the OP and his friend so little respect as to assume they would?

They may well have their own, deductively valid moral position on this situation and it may well be far better thought through than your own "you deserve to be punished / you're a felon / you're criminal ergo you should do X". I have not seen a single valid argument from any of those posting in bad spirit and as such, consider you to be at best bored to tears and merely enjoying yourselves for your own sake. You are certainly not helping anyone, and for those of us reading this you look less than impressive.

To the individual in question you appear to have experienced some very bad luck and as those of us with experience in this country know, there are those to whom it could and actually "should" have happened but likely never will. I have no experiences on this to impart other than to advise that you do seek some sort of legal advice ASAP even if you do not go ahead and engage the services of a lawyer in the end. I was particularly saddened to read that in your case, every step of the way the employers above you have encouraged you to undertake the "fakery". We can all realise, surely, that we could have been in the same position (however hard we like to think we never would be).

Best of luck.

[gburns57au]

Those of you taking your time to enjoy imparting sermons and moralising from the high ground would do well to consider what, if any, impact your comments will have on the individual in question and the OP. Neither of them have come here for moral wisdom and particularly neither have asked for deliberations on prudence. Do you sincerely believe anything you say in this thread will have the slightest impact? Would -you- take moral advice from a stranger on the internet? No? Then why do you give the OP and his friend so little respect as to assume they would?

They may well have their own, deductively valid moral position on this situation and it may well be far better thought through than your own "you deserve to be punished / you're a felon / you're criminal ergo you should do X". I have not seen a single valid argument from any of those posting in bad spirit and as such, consider you to be at best bored to tears and merely enjoying yourselves for your own sake. You are certainly not helping anyone, and for those of us reading this you look less than impressive.

To the individual in question you appear to have experienced some very bad luck and as those of us with experience in this country know, there are those to whom it could and actually "should" have happened but likely never will. I have no experiences on this to impart other than to advise that you do seek some sort of legal advice ASAP even if you do not go ahead and engage the services of a lawyer in the end. I was particularly saddened to read that in your case, every step of the way the employers above you have encouraged you to undertake the "fakery". We can all realise, surely, that we could have been in the same position (however hard we like to think we never would be).

Best of luck.

I helped him to the extent of saying that he should surrender himself and cop the plea....but he has no intention of doing this as he has been laying low for 3 months and not yet engaged a lawyer.

To assist further and in anyway suggest an illegal action would be breaking the law....

The only advice that can be given is to seek legal assistance or surrender....this has been done already and yet they have still been asking for other assistance. This leads me to believe that he wants to do a runner....I will not assist him to break more laws.

[mrtoad]

Those of you taking your time to enjoy imparting sermons and moralising from the high ground would do well to consider what, if any, impact your comments will have on the individual in question and the OP. Neither of them have come here for moral wisdom and particularly neither have asked for deliberations on prudence. Do you sincerely believe anything you say in this thread will have the slightest impact? Would -you- take moral advice from a stranger on the internet? No? Then why do you give the OP and his friend so little respect as to assume they would?

Lets get this straight Will, your opening paragraph contradicts itself doesn't it? If you are suggesting that they are not going to listen to what opinions people have then why post such a thread on the internet? Why would they be sensitive to what has been said if they are not going to listen? And if they have a better thought out plan, then why come and post here?

What he has done is wrong, sorry, plain and simple. I'm sure he is a really genuine guy (Well apart from his false credentials) and has had some bad luck, but my understanding that faking qualifications is not just morally wrong it is legally wrong.

The real issue is not about the work he has done, but the use of fake credentials to secure a place of employment and a visa.

He could have got legal! He should have got legal! In the end he chose not to!

Are you seriously telling me that he didn't know that there was a risk that he may get found out?

As I assume that you are also refering to my posts, I will give him some advice. Go and see a lawyer.

[bangsue]

i've got to chirp in here.

how many people are going to invest 3 years getting a degree and then a few thousand quid to do a TEFL course, to work for 25,000baht or so a month? which is around what this guy was probably earning.

if you can find enough of these well qualified teachers to fill the demand then i would be very surprised.

Edited July 11, 2007 by bangsue

[meemiathai]

Firstly, thanks to Dave the OP for starting this and everyone who has contributed. I am the person in question who finds himself in this unfortunate pickle.I started teaching in a well known disreputable language school about eight years ago.For the first year I had no idea that I even needed a degree and didn't have a clue what a TEFL certificate was.After a year I was told the school in question would supply me with fake documentation as the owner had a "connection" in the Ministry of Labour. I never saw the original certificate but signed the photocopies.

Fast forward a couple of years, I was working at a top 10 government school for a year for the same agency owner when I decided I wanted to work directly for the school. They were more than happy as I had consistently proven I was more than capable to do the job better than most.When the school realised I probably didn't have real certificates,fake documentation was provided for me by one of the senior teachers there,again I didn't see originals but merely signed the photocopies supplied by this top 10 government school.

Moving forward another couple of years I decided a change was in order and became a home room teacher on the recommendation of a friend of mine who was the head of department there. I was employed not directly by the school but by another agency.I went to Khao San Rd on the advice of my friend and duly recieved my dodgy documents.I worked at this school for the rest of that school year and left on good terms to seek a new opportunity in Minbury as I was sick of living in over priced one room apartments and wanted to live in a house.I worked here off the books on a part time basis and got on very well with the owner of the school, a judge.It was while I was working here that I recieved word from the previous school that Immigration or Ministry of Labour police had been in to arrest me after a random check had proven my documents were fake.As a follow up they informed me that warrants for my arrest had been issued and were waiting for me at the airport.As I understand it the maximum sentence for using fake documentation is 3 years per document.

I never gained employment at the expense of a fully qualified teacher as all my jobs were gained through personal recommendation of my teaching ability.Bear in mind, for the majority of the time I was teaching very basic English language, or as a home room teacher, basic maths / science to nine year olds.I've always hated having to live a lie, but the simplistic "go home and get a degree, then come back and teach" option wasn't very appealing. My schooling was so bad that I would now have to study for three years just to get to university,then four years to obtain a degree, to come back to Thailand to work for 40 000 Baht!

The fact that I have been a successful and well respected teacher at every place I've worked,in spite of having no education to speak of,suggests that natural ability, empathy and a dedication to self improvement are sometimes more important in the classroom than a degree in accountancy or particle physics. Schools in Thailand are woefully underfunded and cannot pay the salaries required to attract the tens of thousands of foreign teachers needed. A better solution surely, would be for the M.O.E. to introduce it's own training course for teachers who are teaching simplistic English. A TEFL, CELTA or similar should also be a must as these directly relate to the job in question, but a four year degree in some completely unrelated field is ludicrously irrelevant and discrimanatory in a country that is crying out for people to teach basic grammar and conversation.One hopes that eventually common sense will prevail as it is the kids who ultimately pay the price for the M.O.E.'s lack of vision.

Yes, in my case laws have been broken, but when " the law is an ass " is that so wrong? I believe the concept of justice is that when a person is victimised by another, the perpetrator must suffer the consequences of their actions. As far as I see it, mine is a victimless crime, in fact many thousands have been helped by my eight years of work here.If there is no victim, then where is the crime?

Any advice, comments or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Does he(the judge) know anything about your situation? I bet if you talk to him the whole problem would become only as big as a pimple on a mouse's tail! What do you think?

Best of luck!

[markr]

Those of you taking your time to enjoy imparting sermons and moralising from the high ground would do well to consider what, if any, impact your comments will have on the individual in question and the OP. Neither of them have come here for moral wisdom and particularly neither have asked for deliberations on prudence. Do you sincerely believe anything you say in this thread will have the slightest impact? Would -you- take moral advice from a stranger on the internet? No? Then why do you give the OP and his friend so little respect as to assume they would?

Lets get this straight Will, your opening paragraph contradicts itself doesn't it? If you are suggesting that they are not going to listen to what opinions people have then why post such a thread on the internet? Why would they be sensitive to what has been said if they are not going to listen? And if they have a better thought out plan, then why come and post here?

What he has done is wrong, sorry, plain and simple. I'm sure he is a really genuine guy (Well apart from his false credentials) and has had some bad luck, but my understanding that faking qualifications is not just morally wrong it is legally wrong.

The real issue is not about the work he has done, but the use of fake credentials to secure a place of employment and a visa.

He could have got legal! He should have got legal! In the end he chose not to!

Are you seriously telling me that he didn't know that there was a risk that he may get found out?

As I assume that you are also refering to my posts, I will give him some advice. Go and see a lawyer.

What he was stating is that the guy was not going to listen to the comments made by people on the moral high ground, he was asking for advice on his situation, hence why he asked here on the forum.

Hes not going to listen to people commenting on what he's done or how they feel about him.

Shits happened and he's trying to deal with it!

[BADBRAD]

Sounds like the guy made some mistakes, but who hasn't. Trying to sneak out of the country would probably be another one. Talking to his previous employer, the judge, sounds a lot smarter. Hiring or at least talking to a lawyer when in trouble is NEVER a bad idea. He can at least find out if a warrant exists and with no risk to the OP's friend. As far as the sermons go, I don't think anyone comes to ThaiVisa looking for moral advise, but it sure seems like a lot of people come here looking to give it!

[qwertz]

Sounds like the guy made some mistakes, but who hasn't. Trying to sneak out of the country would probably be another one. Talking to his previous employer, the judge, sounds a lot smarter. Hiring or at least talking to a lawyer when in trouble is NEVER a bad idea. He can at least find out if a warrant exists and with no risk to the OP's friend. As far as the sermons go, I don't think anyone comes to ThaiVisa looking for moral advise, but it sure seems like a lot of people come here looking to give it!

Last two posters seconded.

I hope at least we've managed to squeeze a few helpful tips in between all the useless sermonising.

All due respect to the righteously indignant out there but the as the OP said at the start, this was not a thread for you comment on unless you want to help.

[gburns57au]

Sounds like the guy made some mistakes, but who hasn't. Trying to sneak out of the country would probably be another one. Talking to his previous employer, the judge, sounds a lot smarter. Hiring or at least talking to a lawyer when in trouble is NEVER a bad idea. He can at least find out if a warrant exists and with no risk to the OP's friend. As far as the sermons go, I don't think anyone comes to ThaiVisa looking for moral advise, but it sure seems like a lot of people come here looking to give it!

Last two posters seconded.

I hope at least we've managed to squeeze a few helpful tips in between all the useless sermonising.

All due respect to the righteously indignant out there but the as the OP said at the start, this was not a thread for you comment on unless you want to help.

Would you want him teaching your kids if he wasnt qualified.....nuff said

This is an open forum...if he wanted advice, a lawyer would be better placed to help him...nuff said