Beer Mat Mum Follow Up

[samran]

My summary: when you go abroad, best be a helpless bogan, and it gets your Prime Minister on the case.

Maybe we should start up a new group "bogans abroad". The British chapter can be 'Chavs abroad'. For a membership you get quasi diplomatic immunity.

From crikey.com

Freelance journalist Andrew Dodd writes:

Are we so prejudiced nowadays that any Aussie who is arrested for a misdemeanour in Asia is front page news? The beat up about the Melbourne “beer mat mum”, Annice Smoel, suggests the Australian media will grab any chance it can to condemn the authorities -- particularly the judiciary -- of our Asian neighbours.

The Daily Telegraph’s headline on Tuesday summed up the tone with “Beer mat mum faces Thai jail hel_l.”

As we all now know, Smoel received a suspended sentence and a fine of just $40. She walked free from court and is reportedly on her way home this morning. The sentence was a mile away from the potential "five years in jail" mooted by the media over the last week.

So why did the media get so worked up about Annice Smoel?

Admittedly the story did have a few elements that the media was always going to find irresistible. The novelty beer mat angle was too cute to ignore. The fact that Smoel happened to be blonde was a bonus, as were her four doey eyed kids. The media quickly adopted Smoel as a sort of everywoman. She became one of us, a fun loving Aussie, held captive to those merciless westerner-hating officials in one of those corrupt and dirty places in Asia and ergo she must be championed.

When the media discovered Smoel was speaking out and that what she was saying contained that wonderful blend of anger and vulnerability, she became a sensation and everyone started taking notice.

But it was the prank element that became the clincher. Not only was Smoel one of us, a mother, with her beer mat, tearful kids and quavering voice, she also happened to be innocent. At that point the media flicked the switch to outrage.

Politicians know how this works. Once an Aussie abroad becomes emblematic of our helplessness in a foreign land, and their cause is championed by the press, MPs, the Foreign Affairs Department and its consular staff know they have to be seen to be doing all they can to get her home. That’s why their radar is now finely tuned for just these sorts of cases. The Victorian Premier, John Brumby, was saying all the right stuff, as was Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, who even managed the perfunctory reminder that as Thailand is a sovereign nation, there is only so much that he and the Australian Government can do.

The elements of this story have been predictable from the start. The jail, in which Smoel spent two nights, was described by the media as "four metres by four metres", as if that suggested a torture cell out of Apocalypse Now. The toilets were described in graphic detail, the food was condemned as inedible and the officials were described as heavy handed.

Even an instance of incorruptibility on the part of the Thai officials was twisted to suit the story. On Tuesday, the Daily Telegraph wrote "The family have admitted they offered Thai authorities money to secure her release but it was refused." Written like this it is merely an indication of our beer mat mum’s desperation, and certainly not of the wrongdoing of offering what appeared to be a bribe.

When Smoel gets off the plane today it’ll be hugs with crying kids and tearful joy at being home in the best country on earth and, if all goes to script, a vow to never go back there again.

About the only line that suggested something other than the "innocent abroad" theme came in Karen Percy’s report from Phuket on ABC TV this morning which ended with this tag: "But (the whole affair) has also shone a spotlight on the way Australians behave abroad."

Edited May 21, 2009 by samran

[TheLaughingMan]

"As we all now know, Smoel received a suspended sentence and a fine of just $40. She walked free from court and is reportedly on her way home this morning. The sentence was a mile away from the potential "five years in jail" mooted by the media over the last week."

Yes and the reason her punishment was so light was directly because of her speaking out and getting support from the media and her government. Otherwise it would not have been a measly 1000 baht fine that the Governor of Phuket paid out of his own pocket all the while apologising and stating she did nothing wrong.

As for her guilty of trying to bribe, anyone that lives here knows that is normally expected and it is the correct step to take if you have no other recourse to fix your situation quickly and get back to your family instead of waiting several months away from your small children.

[CWMcMurray]

I also find it interesting that even though the Governor publically advised that she "did nothing wrong" and the he couldn't believe the bar owner let it come to this.

Earlier the Bar owner advised in an interview that he did not want to press charges.

So the question is:

- If the alledged victim does not want to press charges and the Governor states publically that she did not commit any crime, why did dhe have to pay any fine? Why where the charges not dropped?

[jeffer]

Asked about admitting to stealing a bar mat, she said: "I had to do what I had to do to get out."

Ms Smoel arrived home after spending 18 days in the holiday town of Phuket - including four nights in jail accused of stealing the mat from the Aussie Bar.

"The governor of Phuket was there and he guaranteed me personally that I wouldn't go to jail if I pleaded guilty," she told reporters.

"If I'd pleaded not guilty it would have taken months to go to trial and I just had to come home."

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,2...754-661,00.html

The media coverage continues to be interesting...

THREE young Melbourne women say they were interrogated and taunted by staff over an alleged stolen bar mat at the same Phuket bar where Annice Smoel was arrested.

"One security guard said to me, 'Do you know what it's like for girls like you in a Thailand prison?'," she said.

"The other taunt that they gave us was that, 'You should start calling the Australian embassy because there's a good chance you won't be seeing your family again'."

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,2...66-2862,00.html

[csolgosz]

Asked about admitting to stealing a bar mat, she said: "I had to do what I had to do to get out."

Ms Smoel arrived home after spending 18 days in the holiday town of Phuket - including four nights in jail accused of stealing the mat from the Aussie Bar.

"The governor of Phuket was there and he guaranteed me personally that I wouldn't go to jail if I pleaded guilty," she told reporters.

"If I'd pleaded not guilty it would have taken months to go to trial and I just had to come home."

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,2...754-661,00.html

The media coverage continues to be interesting...

THREE young Melbourne women say they were interrogated and taunted by staff over an alleged stolen bar mat at the same Phuket bar where Annice Smoel was arrested.

"One security guard said to me, 'Do you know what it's like for girls like you in a Thailand prison?'," she said.

"The other taunt that they gave us was that, 'You should start calling the Australian embassy because there's a good chance you won't be seeing your family again'."

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,2...66-2862,00.html

Sounds like a lot of sh*t to me. I work with reasonably educated Thais and a lot of them would have trouble getting out a sentence like that. They wouldn't even know the word for embassy... But a security guy...?

Anyway, after seeing the calibre of some of the tourists in Phuket, I was embarrassed to admit I was an Aussie. Just like when I went home for a few weeks and saw the obese unemployed pigs guzzling KFC with taxpayers money (not mine any more... in the food halls with the grease running down their chins...

Oh, it was the girlfriends ('Samantha' and 'Jodie': smh.com.au 2009-05-20 ) who put the huge bar mat in her bag, not the other male friend (Pete?) who admitted to it???? What a lot of <deleted>. Fair dinkum, Thai prisons are too good for this sorry lot. Put em on a ship like the Pommies did with a lot our ancestors and pack em off somewhere else (like Myanmer) and they will have something better to complain about.

As for the loser ex-pats who sit at their computers whinging about this country that lets them stay here, they should pack up and go home. Betcha anything they wouldn't, if you paid them... And I guess half of them are here on false pretences too.

Glad to hear the Aussie Bar is doing very well after this incident!!!

[katasyd]

Every dog gets his day.

[RachaRob]

Sounds like a lot of sh*t to me. I work with reasonably educated Thais and a lot of them would have trouble getting out a sentence like that. They wouldn't even know the word for embassy... But a security guy...?

Anyway, after seeing the calibre of some of the tourists in Phuket, I was embarrassed to admit I was an Aussie. Just like when I went home for a few weeks and saw the obese unemployed pigs guzzling KFC with taxpayers money (not mine any more... in the food halls with the grease running down their chins...

Oh, it was the girlfriends ('Samantha' and 'Jodie': smh.com.au 2009-05-20 ) who put the huge bar mat in her bag, not the other male friend (Pete?) who admitted to it???? What a lot of <deleted>. Fair dinkum, Thai prisons are too good for this sorry lot. Put em on a ship like the Pommies did with a lot our ancestors and pack em off somewhere else (like Myanmer) and they will have something better to complain about.

As for the loser ex-pats who sit at their computers whinging about this country that lets them stay here, they should pack up and go home. Betcha anything they wouldn't, if you paid them... And I guess half of them are here on false pretences too.

Glad to hear the Aussie Bar is doing very well after this incident!!!

dam_n! where did you get the photo of my family?

[Oberkommando]

The media coverage continues to be interesting...

THREE young Melbourne women say they were interrogated and taunted by staff over an alleged stolen bar mat at the same Phuket bar where Annice Smoel was arrested.

"One security guard said to me, 'Do you know what it's like for girls like you in a Thailand prison?'," she said.

"The other taunt that they gave us was that, 'You should start calling the Australian embassy because there's a good chance you won't be seeing your family again'."

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,2...66-2862,00.html

That article suggests it is just another tourist shakedown by the local plod.

Knowing Bangla Road as I do that wouldn't surprise me in the slightest.

If the bar is so bothered about the theft of these beer mats may I suggest putting one on display behind the bar and decorating the tables with the mats that all the alcohol distributors give to the bars free of charge?

[khunjamespittman]

Asked about admitting to stealing a bar mat, she said: "I had to do what I had to do to get out."

Ms Smoel arrived home after spending 18 days in the holiday town of Phuket - including four nights in jail accused of stealing the mat from the Aussie Bar.

"The governor of Phuket was there and he guaranteed me personally that I wouldn't go to jail if I pleaded guilty," she told reporters.

"If I'd pleaded not guilty it would have taken months to go to trial and I just had to come home."

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,2...754-661,00.html

The media coverage continues to be interesting...

THREE young Melbourne women say they were interrogated and taunted by staff over an alleged stolen bar mat at the same Phuket bar where Annice Smoel was arrested.

"One security guard said to me, 'Do you know what it's like for girls like you in a Thailand prison?'," she said.

"The other taunt that they gave us was that, 'You should start calling the Australian embassy because there's a good chance you won't be seeing your family again'."

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,2...66-2862,00.html

Sounds like a lot of sh*t to me. I work with reasonably educated Thais and a lot of them would have trouble getting out a sentence like that. They wouldn't even know the word for embassy... But a security guy...?

Anyway, after seeing the calibre of some of the tourists in Phuket, I was embarrassed to admit I was an Aussie. Just like when I went home for a few weeks and saw the obese unemployed pigs guzzling KFC with taxpayers money (not mine any more... in the food halls with the grease running down their chins...

Oh, it was the girlfriends ('Samantha' and 'Jodie': smh.com.au 2009-05-20 ) who put the huge bar mat in her bag, not the other male friend (Pete?) who admitted to it???? What a lot of <deleted>. Fair dinkum, Thai prisons are too good for this sorry lot. Put em on a ship like the Pommies did with a lot our ancestors and pack em off somewhere else (like Myanmer) and they will have something better to complain about.

As for the loser ex-pats who sit at their computers whinging about this country that lets them stay here, they should pack up and go home. Betcha anything they wouldn't, if you paid them... And I guess half of them are here on false pretences too.

Glad to hear the Aussie Bar is doing very well after this incident!!!

I guess your post, although devoid of an facts, will earn you a free beer, You hope. More likely you'll receive the same crap that all the other tourists get.

[TheLaughingMan]

Sounds like a lot of sh*t to me. I work with reasonably educated Thais and a lot of them would have trouble getting out a sentence like that. They wouldn't even know the word for embassy... But a security guy...?

Anyway, after seeing the calibre of some of the tourists in Phuket, I was embarrassed to admit I was an Aussie. Just like when I went home for a few weeks and saw the obese unemployed pigs guzzling KFC with taxpayers money (not mine any more... in the food halls with the grease running down their chins...

Oh, it was the girlfriends ('Samantha' and 'Jodie': smh.com.au 2009-05-20 ) who put the huge bar mat in her bag, not the other male friend (Pete?) who admitted to it???? What a lot of <deleted>. Fair dinkum, Thai prisons are too good for this sorry lot. Put em on a ship like the Pommies did with a lot our ancestors and pack em off somewhere else (like Myanmer) and they will have something better to complain about.

As for the loser ex-pats who sit at their computers whinging about this country that lets them stay here, they should pack up and go home. Betcha anything they wouldn't, if you paid them... And I guess half of them are here on false pretences too.

Glad to hear the Aussie Bar is doing very well after this incident!!!

So basically you simply do not believe that any of the stories of bad events happening to tourists is true and you hate tourists in general? You think this bar mat theft was a highly orchestrated and organised crime? perhaps if it had been they would have gotten away with it instead of putting a giant mat in a too small handbag right in front of everyone thinking it was funny. And you are ok with this and truly believe your opinion is valid and righteous?

[JetsetBkk]

I also find it interesting that even though the Governor publicly advised that she "did nothing wrong" and the he couldn't believe the bar owner let it come to this.

Earlier the Bar owner advised in an interview that he did not want to press charges.

So the question is:

- If the alleged victim does not want to press charges and the Governor states publicly that she did not commit any crime, why did she have to pay any fine? Why were the charges not dropped?

As I said elsewhere, the governor was simply doing his job and trying not to let this incident put off too many prospective tourists. He probably doesn't expect anyone to think further than what he said or to analyse it. Unfortunately for him, that is not the farang way.

[Nignoy]

Kin ell folks, if she had done the same thing at her local RSL in Melbourne , maybe she would not have been locked up, but if the police were involved she would have got a bigger fine, but it was just another case of a tourist behaving badly, and theboys in brown being a bit macho, She should have tried the same prank in singapore, it is a caning offence, she will no doubt earn a fewbob for her exclusive story, just another nail in Thailands tourism coffin!!

[TheLaughingMan]

I'm truly confused. If she stole the thing I would be all for thinking she should be punished. But I do not understand why even after witnesses and confessions from the true perpetrator and the Governer himself saying she did nothing wrong that people still think she deserved any kind of punishment or ill treatment. What exactly am I missing here. Because in a western case, if another came forward immediately and confessed they would stop chasing the original suspect unless it was obvious the confession was false. What exactly is the big thing I do not see that you all see?

[Carmine6]

The media coverage continues to be interesting...

THREE young Melbourne women say they were interrogated and taunted by staff over an alleged stolen bar mat at the same Phuket bar where Annice Smoel was arrested.

"One security guard said to me, 'Do you know what it's like for girls like you in a Thailand prison?'," she said.

"The other taunt that they gave us was that, 'You should start calling the Australian embassy because there's a good chance you won't be seeing your family again'."

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,2...66-2862,00.html

That article suggests it is just another tourist shakedown by the local plod.

Knowing Bangla Road as I do that wouldn't surprise me in the slightest.

If the bar is so bothered about the theft of these beer mats may I suggest putting one on display behind the bar and decorating the tables with the mats that all the alcohol distributors give to the bars free of charge?

By every single account of the incident her friends took the mat. How is this a "shakedown"?

By the sounds of the media coverage I can just walk into a bar in Australia, put something in my buddy's bag as a prank and we can just walk out. If we're caught I just have to admit to it, say I have 4 kids, one of whom is sick and we're on our way.

[wamberal]

The media in Australia has been saturated with pictures of this quite attractive woman arriving back at the airport, and being greeted by her four tearful daughters.

She is coming across as a typical Aussie mum with a very photogenic family. Hardly the type to run amok in a bar you would think.

I agree with what others have said - this is another nail in the coffin for Thai tourism.

[mc2]

http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/3000-the...07.html?page=-1

"After negotiating with a detective - "he wanted the money in an envelope" - the family paid $3000 to have the charges dropped. Ms Smoel pleaded guilty to her charges - in order to leave Thailand - was fined $38 and placed on a good behaviour bond.

"(The detective) told us everything would be sweet and to enjoy the rest of our holiday," Ms Appleby said.

"We could've done like (Mrs Smoel) and fought the charges but he would've been there for quite a few more days. Michael was obviously petrified. There were big, big grey patches in what they were charging him with."

Michael left Thailand for Perth almost immediately. Ms Appleby suspected his drink had been spiked, and said the incidents were a warning for Australians visiting the tourist mecca.

"People need to know to watch out. You need to be with friends and they need to be watching out for each other," she said.

"You have to be careful of having a big night. It's a shame. I don't want to say don't go there, because it can be good, but maybe the bad publicity will make them clean up their act. People there say this sort of thing is happening all the time and Thai prostitutes will drop drugs into Westerners drinks.""

i highlighted the bit , she blames a thai woman for spiking her husbands drink lol

australian media is keen to blame the thai police. bias and shoddy journalism typical of australian media

Edited May 21, 2009 by mc2

[loong]

The media coverage continues to be interesting...

THREE young Melbourne women say they were interrogated and taunted by staff over an alleged stolen bar mat at the same Phuket bar where Annice Smoel was arrested.

"One security guard said to me, 'Do you know what it's like for girls like you in a Thailand prison?'," she said.

"The other taunt that they gave us was that, 'You should start calling the Australian embassy because there's a good chance you won't be seeing your family again'."

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,2...66-2862,00.html

That article suggests it is just another tourist shakedown by the local plod.

Knowing Bangla Road as I do that wouldn't surprise me in the slightest.

If the bar is so bothered about the theft of these beer mats may I suggest putting one on display behind the bar and decorating the tables with the mats that all the alcohol distributors give to the bars free of charge?

By every single account of the incident her friends took the mat. How is this a "shakedown"?

By the sounds of the media coverage I can just walk into a bar in Australia, put something in my buddy's bag as a prank and we can just walk out. If we're caught I just have to admit to it, say I have 4 kids, one of whom is sick and we're on our way.

Your post has absolutely no relevance to the post that you have quoted.

The post is about another story where 3 girls allege that they were accused of stealing a mat, when another person had taken it. A different group of people - read the link.

[johna]

http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/3000-the...07.html?page=-1

"After negotiating with a detective - "he wanted the money in an envelope" - the family paid $3000 to have the charges dropped. Ms Smoel pleaded guilty to her charges - in order to leave Thailand - was fined $38 and placed on a good behaviour bond.

"(The detective) told us everything would be sweet and to enjoy the rest of our holiday," Ms Appleby said.

"We could've done like (Mrs Smoel) and fought the charges but he would've been there for quite a few more days. Michael was obviously petrified. There were big, big grey patches in what they were charging him with."

Michael left Thailand for Perth almost immediately. Ms Appleby suspected his drink had been spiked, and said the incidents were a warning for Australians visiting the tourist mecca.

"People need to know to watch out. You need to be with friends and they need to be watching out for each other," she said.

"You have to be careful of having a big night. It's a shame. I don't want to say don't go there, because it can be good, but maybe the bad publicity will make them clean up their act. People there say this sort of thing is happening all the time and Thai prostitutes will drop drugs into Westerners drinks.""

i highlighted the bit , she blames a thai woman for spiking her husbands drink lol

australian media is keen to blame the thai police. bias and shoddy journalism typical of australian media

Sure tourists do stupid things, but people in a legitimate tourist industry's know the best way to handle these things.

Is the Aussie Bar in Phuket so dangerous it needs bouncers and police for security? no I don't think so, it seems they are there not to resolve minor issues but to financially exploit them.

Why exploit tourist, because they are a soft target.

Thai police are paradigms of virtue, no bar girl would spike a customer's drink, every tourist who gets into trouble deserves to be locked up!!!!!

[Carmine6]

[quote

By every single account of the incident her friends took the mat. How is this a "shakedown"?

By the sounds of the media coverage I can just walk into a bar in Australia, put something in my buddy's bag as a prank and we can just walk out. If we're caught I just have to admit to it, say I have 4 kids, one of whom is sick and we're on our way.

Your post has absolutely no relevance to the post that you have quoted.

The post is about another story where 3 girls allege that they were accused of stealing a mat, when another person had taken it. A different group of people - read the link.

Oops. Sloppy reading on my part.

[egg]

When l first started to read about this she was accused of abusing police , running from police, being allowed to leave the bar and then arrested later ,,, was all that crap , because l have not heard any mention of that in any reports

cheers

egg

[TAWP]

It has been mentioned in many reports...maybe you were just not reading them.

[samran]

follow up in todays crikey.com

"Dear Sole Subscriber,

This year over $80m will be spent on consular assistance for Australians overseas, helping out the likes of beer-mat-mum Annice Smoel.

The cost of such services is constantly increasing. The number of Australians demanding help from Foreign Affairs overseas has doubled since 2003-04.

It’s fair to say that decades ago, Australians who travelled overseas and got into difficulties -- especially if they caused the difficulties through their own criminal behaviour -- were not automatically regarded as cases deserving of public outcry and assistance. If some Aussie found themselves in self-inflicted trouble overseas then that was their problem.

Somewhere along the way in recent years, the entitlement mentality that pervades Australia’s welfare system has extended to the perception that Australians have a right to be rescued from whatever trouble they get into while travelling overseas.

Most particularly if they get into trouble in a developing country. There doesn’t seem to be quite the same outcry when people are arrested in the United States or the UK. But put them in a jail cell in Thailand, Indonesia or Eastern Europe, and suddenly we’re in Midnight Express territory. The media is happy to feed this perception, demanding everything short of sending in the Navy (do we have a serviceable gunboat?) to rescue unlucky -- or more typically criminal -- travellers in durance vile in Third World conditions. Female travellers, of course, generate that precious damsel-in-distress dimension for the media.

This is a none-too-subtle form of xenophobia, an assumption that Australians have special rights when travelling in poorer -- duskier -- countries. It’s the mentality that assumes a form of extraterritoriality for travelling Australians who break the laws of the countries in which they are guests, which assumes a right for Australians to behave as offensively as possible. It’s the mentality that assumes Australia can lecture Turkey over how to maintain the heritage values of Gallipoli, as if the peninsula belongs to us and not to the people of the country we invaded in WW1.

It’s almost a type of latter-day colonialism, as the citizens of the Deputy Sheriff nation swagger around the region, drunk, boorish and behaving as they please. It’d be amusing if taxpayers weren’t footing the bill."

And also from a few crikey readers:

Adam Rope writes: Re. "Beermat Mum follows media script to perfection" (yesterday, item 5). Andrew Dodd’s’ article yesterday on the Australian media’s beat up -- sorry reporting -- on the Annice Smoel non-story gave the impression that all the media followed the same all too predictable course. However there was one glaring exception -- Andrew Bolt.

In his column on Wednesday Bolt ripped into the ugly drunk Australian abroad image, especially when drunken antics lead to arrests "Do we really not understand that our raucous manners and big mouths don’t charm many foreigners? Do we really need to be told that abusing and lording it over Asian police and judges in particular buys us nothing but trouble?"

He then followed this up with another article on Thursday, "Our wonderful sense of humour", detailing further embarrassing incidents, and asked at the end "Does anyone ask themselves what kind of reputation we must have overseas?"

Love him or loathe him as you will, but you have to credit Bolt for condemning the antics of Australian louts abroad in this case.

Rob Pickering writes: Regarding the beer mat mum -- isn't bribery of a foreign official (as mentioned in your article) an offence prosecutable in Australia? According to Smartraveller.gov.au -- their quote is (on each travel advice per country): "Some Australian criminal laws, such as those relating to money laundering, bribery of foreign public officials, terrorism and child sex tourism, apply to Australians overseas. Australians who commit these offences while overseas may be prosecuted in Australia."

So -- when will the prosecution be of these people who are bribing foreign officials?

Alan Kennedy writes: A group of drunk cashed up boganettes in Thailand get themselves into trouble and behave like a bunch of NRL players on a night out, one gets arrested and the full force of the Australian Government is brought into play to get her home. We should have left her there.

At the very least she should be asked to pay some sort of bill for all the taxpayers money expended because she doesn't know how to behave herself.

[egg]

It has been mentioned in many reports...maybe you were just not reading them.

thats more likely than not

[Samuian]

What would have happened to her if she was caught doing the same in OZ?

What would have happened to a Thai doing this in OZ

and would there be the same Fuzz in the Thai Papers?

[TheLaughingMan]

So nobody will explain to me the missing link is this story. Someone else confesses, she is not the actual perpetrator and everyone knows it, but still she is seen as doing something wrong, even as if she did in fact commit some crime. Anyone? I'd greatly appreciate it.

[farseer]

So nobody will explain to me the missing link is this story. Someone else confesses, she is not the actual perpetrator and everyone knows it, but still she is seen as doing something wrong, even as if she did in fact commit some crime. Anyone? I'd greatly appreciate it.

She took the rap for someone else's prank, the other girl confessed but the cops told her to buzz off, owner wouldn't drop the case so the police had to continue with it. Australia makes a fuss, Thai government hear and tell everyone in Phuket to sort it out asap. The owner of bar still won't stop pressing charges so she has to go to court.

In this country, if you don't plead guilty then the case never finishes, so she was told to plead guilty which she did, as she had no other choice.

But as she said that she was guilty to the charge then she will now be black listed and banned from re entering Thailand, usually it is forever.

The blame for this farce lies solely with the Australian bar owner, he only needed to ask her for the beer mat back, so simple. Why involve the cops? Unless he was trying to scam these girls and that is what it seems to look like but his plans backfired. The guy needs to be kicked and thrown out of Thailand.

Edited May 22, 2009 by farseer

[TAWP]

Farseer>> You are misinformed. The owner apparently wasn't in the country even when it happened. And the girl was nabbed by the police, not by staff.

Added: But noo, so typical, the working person that employees Thai staff and pays taxes, he is the bad guy and should be kicked out... hope to God I never employ any ungrateful b*stard like you.

Edited May 22, 2009 by TAWP

[TheLaughingMan]

Tawp I think it is you that is misinformed. Completely.

The owner was not there that night and he originally did not involve the police, but both the police and the Governor of Phuket stated officially that the owner is pressing charges (now) and will not back down. That is 2 official groups saying that it is all his fault, if they are lying, the owner should take some form of action but he has not.

The woman was let go by police inside the bar, only to be grabbed again outside by staff and brought to other police at a police box close by.

I still do not understand what she did wrong that has everyone so upset, she was not the perpetrator, everyone freely admits this, and yet there is still all forms of hostility towards her. Is this normal to keep condemning the wrongfully accused when the real perpetrator has come forward? Seems to me there has to be something else going on here, looks like a huge case of mysogynism by alot of the men that live in Thailand. I'm just trying to find a reason for this illogical stance held by so many posters here. Logic dictates that if someone is proven to be innocent then people should stop blaming them but here this is not the case.

[loong]

When l first started to read about this she was accused of abusing police , running from police, being allowed to leave the bar and then arrested later ,,, was all that crap , because l have not heard any mention of that in any reports

cheers

egg

The allegations that she abused and ran from the police all stem from a statement by one of the partners, Steve. Steve was not in the bar at the same, so his statement is in fact nothing more than a rumour.

The police chief did state that she was rude to police officers, he also added that the police officers did not understand what she was saying, so they can't possibly know if she was being rude or not. The police chief stated that she was loud in his presence, he did not state that she was rude or abusive.

So the accusations of her abusing and running from the police all stem from the unsubstantiated statement of a co -owner of the bar, who was nowhere near the bar at the time.

The only crime that she was charged with was theft. She was not charged with resisting arrest, drunken or abusive behavior.

[loong]

The owner was not there that night and he originally did not involve the police, but both the police and the Governor of Phuket stated officially that the owner is pressing charges (now) and will not back down. That is 2 official groups saying that it is all his fault, if they are lying, the owner should take some form of action but he has not.

I believe from what I have read that there are at least 4 owners, 2 Australian men and their wives, but only one has made any public statements. So we don't know who the Governor was referring to when he mentioned the owner.