My Story – Fake Police Raid In Bangkok

[camo007]

I share my story so that others can learn from what has happened to me.

I found myself having a dispute with a local business owner over his dislike for my Thai staff. Many threats had been made but his parting comment was “I can have you shut down”.

The very next afternoon I walk into my office to see my staff lined up by people claiming to be police. In fact at least 2 of the 11 people were police however no uniforms.

They showed a warrant looking for an illegal boiler room however they did not have a copy for us and would not allow us to make a copy.

Demands were made and they informed they would have us all arrested despite having no evidence of any wrong doing. We were told we could be held without charge for up to 2 weeks and they would use that time to inspect all our activities and computers.

Having a completely legal business our only fear was the interruption this would have on the business.

A demand for a cash payment to go away was demanded and we were escorted to a local ATM and demanded to withdraw cash in order to not be arrested.

After this event I contacted my Embassy, Local Police and the Anticorruption department.

A meeting was held in our office within days and it was made very clear to us the whole thing was a setup.

The following points were made by the investigating Internal Police:

You must be issued with an original copy of a warrant to keep.

A uniform Police officer must be present.

To seize goods a separate warrant or explicit terms must be present in the warrant.

All Police must supply Photo Police ID on request. If they don't have it then you should not allow them in.

We have since discovered the warrant was a fake and most of the people were only friends of the police and as such not only breaking the law but also trespassing.

We have installed Video cameras as a deterrence to future events and also commenced staff training every 3 months as to what to do in the future. The Police that entered our office were not from the local police office.

The one key thing we had been told was we should have called 191 as this is not only a recorded hotline but also requires a Uniform police officer is dispatched. This would have seen them run as a report would need to be made.

If you are doing nothing wrong you simply should call your Lawyer and the Police and get them all onsite immediately. As a westerner in Thailand it’s a standard thing to need to have video cameras recording everybody entering your office and or location.

While you may not be able to make the call the idea if that one of your staff will be in a position to do so and be trained well enough to know this is what they must do without question.

We have visited the Internal Police and made reports also. They have said that simply having the right info and having your Thai staff inform quickly the fake Police that the game is not going to work and that you have called the local police already to come resolve the matter tends to result in them moving on to an easier target.

I hope this information assists others doing business in Asia (Not only Thailand) and that you start talking about such matters with your staff. Make sure everybody knows what number to dial and possibly put Emergency numbers up on signs all around your premises.

[Sunbelt Asia]

That is very good advice. Thank you for sharing your story.

Greg

[sunbelt][/sunbelt]