And a further to this, are there insurance companies in Thailand that will cover you without question with an international driving licence or is there a requirement with all of them to have a Thai licence.

I agree. The real issue here is not whether i am legally allowed to drive in this country on my licence, as we all know the penalties and not enough to deter people from taking the risk. Insurance is a different matter and in this case the only real issue it seems.

If I am covered by my insurance company and they have confirmed this in writing.. why is not okay to drive on my UK licence??

Answers:

Insurance: will depend on the policy conditions, without seeing those nobody can answer anything about this;

Documents needed: tourists: home license, with a few provisions, people staying here longer term: Thai license.

Nothing to do with opinions BTW, only with facts.

This information and that in stevenl's post #83 above is correct. Ignore everything else.

Since you ask again about an IDP, it unfortunately sounds like you did not understand the law on this point yet, see bold in the quote here.

Look online, e.g. here, and you will find many stories of people getting paid by the insurance even though they did not meet these requirements. Is that a guarantee they will do the same in case an accident with high damage, no.

What an Insurance Company says or writes is irrelevant.

If you have an accident on a UK licence, which effectively means No licence you will have trouble

Any policeman will say about your UK licence: Not from Thailand

Get a Thai Licence. It takes minimal Effort and Time

If you are a resident in Thailand then there is a chance you may run into problems since as a resident you need a Thai DL to drive legally, but it is far from certain. There are many cases where residents were on their home license also with no IDP and had no problems. This is more common than not. Of course it is best to get a Thai license if you are a resident.

Again, as a tourist your home license is completely fine (legal).

You are determined to do the trip, what the hell do you want people to say, you have been told a dozen ways don't do it so accept the consequences .