Elderly Immigrant Loses His Life Savings After He Puts Bag With £70,000 In Luggage Hold On Coach Trip From Heathrow To Portsmouth

[Boater]

An elderly National Express passenger was today counting the cost after his £70,000 life savings were stolen from a bag left in the coach's hold.

The victim, a man aged in his 80s, had stowed the black hold-all stuffed with cash into the luggage area of the coach after getting off a flight at Heathrow Airport.

But by the time he reached the coach's final destination in Portsmouth, Hampshire, the money, which was in Australian dollars and Thai baht, was gone.

Cost: A National Express coach on waiting at The Hard Coach Station, Portsmouth, where the elderly man found his bag had gone. (File photo)

The man had brought the money over from his home in Thailand with a view to purchasing a property in the UK, a spokesman for Hampshire Police said.

They are urging shopkeepers and bankers to be vigilant of anyone trying to change a large quantity of the foreign currencies.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2051037/Elderly-National-Express-passenger-devastated-losing-70-000-life-savings-trip-Heathrow-Portsmouth.html#ixzz1bJkHxjRt

[Boater]

i think he might be telling porkies? , why did he not exchange his THB in Thailand and getting a better rate ( and it is ALOT better )

also, how much thai baht can you take out the country?

[Thanyaburi Mac]

i think he might be telling porkies? , why did he not exchange his THB in Thailand and getting a better rate ( and it is ALOT better )

also, how much thai baht can you take out the country?

I was thinking the same, so here's IATA's take:

http://www.iatatravelcentre.com/TH-Thailand-customs-currency-airport-tax-regulations-details.htm

Currency Export regulations:

Local currency: up to THB 50,000.- per person or THB 100,000.- per family holding one passport.

Foreign currencies: unlimited. However, amounts of foreign currency exceeding USD 20,000.- (or equivalent) must be declared to a Customs Officer upon departure by all travellers.

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The guy was lucky that Thai Customs didn't check him on departure, otherwise he might well be spending some time in the Crowbar Hotel downtown.

Mac

[InterestedObserver]

Average house price £228,095 in the UK. What was he going to buy for £70,000.

[Daffy D]

i think he might be telling porkies? , why did he not exchange his THB in Thailand and getting a better rate ( and it is ALOT better )

Then he would have lost more

[Swiss1960]

No sympathy with him... just an idiot to leave that kind of money out of view and hold for only a second...

And... don't you think that this amount might have been in need for washing a bit?? Maybe through property investment???

[bendejo]

Maybe a bus worker was ripped off when in Thailand on one of those dodgy KSR buses, where they go through your bags on the way to Surat Thani. This was his revenge.

Sarcasm aside, yeah, what could he buy for £70k? He checked his cash stash as luggage? Then again, there are travelers in these parts who don't have the sense to NOT keep their money and passport in their checked bags.

[Kwasaki]

Average house price £228,095 in the UK. What was he going to buy for £70,000.

Exactly, the old guy is just as cunning as was probably in his younger days, still scamming.

[meatboy]

didnt the old man now about hand luggage,put in the hold and hang on to your bag of sandwhichs seems like he still has his marbles,life savings in aus dollars and thai bht.who's he kidding.

[Darrel]

This chap was in his eighties. Most people have lost their marbles by then, through no fault of their own. We have proof of that in that no one in his right mind would bring Thai Baht to Europe as they are more or less worthless there. That doesn't make it right or acceptable for him to be robbed.

Many contributors here seem to have lost their marbles at the age of about 12.

[bonobo]

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