'Missing' Irish teacher locked up for drunk driving in Phuket

[Nobb]

Farangs watch out for the Thai police when driving even with a few drinks. The police know the farangs will pay there fines with no problem. If they arrest a Thai it will cause unrest in the villages. If you are a farang take a taxi even if you are only going to have a few!

[anto]

Who on earth in Thailand would wish to learn Irish ?

Who in Ireland would want to learn Irish ? ,but it was compulsary to learn it when i was of school age in Dublin .

[anto]

Wow! Imagine that. An Irishman locked up for being drunk. Who would have thought?

As an Irishman who likes his Guinness ,i can drive safely after 6 pints .The Police should set a higher limit for us Irish .

[beerzy]

The police had to post on Facebook ? My god are they so backward they do not have a central police information system.

Even for the mentally retarded Thai Police I would have thought a few phone calls around local police stations would have located him.

at least a call to the Thai police that he was missing would have been the first action I would have thought!

[HOOD Robin]

The Police had to post on Facebook to find him ? My god are they so mentally retarded they couldn't pick up a phone and ring round the local stations ?

Don't the RTP have a central information data base like other civilized countries ?

Thailand civilized ?? FAR from !!

[shirtless]

This Irish boy should take a good look at himself, all this grief could have been avoided by not driving, On DUI thais are evolving., its a good thing as these people could easily kill you or I.

[rayw]

No condoning drink driving, but locking someone up for what appears to be at least 58 hours without communication or counsel is just wrong.

If caught for drink driving you should be banged to rights, but you also have a right to due process as well. Along the lines of arrested, taken to local police station processed and released with a trial date. It should not take almost 3 days and possibly cost someone their job.

Absolutely spot on Pomthai. I do believe, though correct me if I am wrong, that it is normal international human rights law to be allowed communication and/or proper counsel when arrested and most certainly when locked up on remand. This is what is so wrong with this case and why it has caused so much unnecessary trouble and thus to make the new, and indeed a fair cop. But come on now, EVERYONE MUST HAVE THE BASIC RIGHT TO COMMUNICATION AND / OR COUNSEL as that is a basic and fair common sense human right.

If any of you are arrested you must ask for, no DEMAND, this right of communication and/or counsel, and if that does not happen then ASAP make sure the guilty police involved are brought to justice for abuse of your legal human rights and of them abusing their position unjustly too. IMHO those police involved in this case, by not allowing communication and/or counsel, are just as criminally guilty of an offence as the drunk driver arrested. Come on it really is not that difficult surely for every police officer to know and honour this, so what is their problem and why do they not realise by not honouring this basic right they end up causing so much more waster police time and that of the authorities, let alone friends and relatives ??

As long as the police ensure this right is fully respected for everyone arrested then the police have my and indeed most folks full support in upholding the law. Thus ensuring proper justice prevails by the RTP with their handling of arrested individuals (Falang or Thai as same / same in law) is something I would love to see PM Prayut doing whilst he is still in power and able to do so, as he is known to be a good man for upholding responsible prosecution of the law and anti-corruption.

Edited November 11, 2015 by rayw

[timendres]

No condoning drink driving, but locking someone up for what appears to be at least 58 hours without communication or counsel is just wrong.

If caught for drink driving you should be banged to rights, but you also have a right to due process as well. Along the lines of arrested, taken to local police station processed and released with a trial date. It should not take almost 3 days and possibly cost someone their job.

Would you rather he was out driving minibuses while still drunk? At least he's sobered up (for now) and is unlikely to re-offend.

In the US, you will certainly spend the night in the drunk tank (local jail), because you must wait for arraignment when the court open in the morning. However, depending on the location of the arrest, and the night of your arrest (for example, Friday night), you could easily spend the weekend in jail waiting for your arraignment on Monday morning. Don't like the 3 days in jail? Don't like possibly losing your job? Then don't drive drunk!!! I am all for partying until you drop. I even like the occasional melee or stupid prank. But an automobile can kill.

[bearpolar]

Even in your own country, Don't drink and drive!. This Irish Teacher should feel

pretty stupid. Getting a taxi ride is not that expensive, so why drink and drive.

The police departments in Thailand are not equipped in the same way as UK, or USA

or Canada. They do not have the multi million dollar communication systems.

It is funny that the tourist police, did not check with the local police though, but

what the heck, looks like face book saved the day.

But the taxi's are all drunk at 1am.

[from the home of CC]

What would Thailand do without Facebook

I know a bargirl whos brother got stabbed to death. she was living overseas with one of her sponsors but came back to Thailand to start a campaign (including facebook) to try to get some justice for her brother as the police don't seem to care about cases unless they are in the public eye. facebook seems to be fairly important in Thailand.

the name itself says it all for Thailand

[anto]

Even in your own country, Don't drink and drive!. This Irish Teacher should feel

pretty stupid. Getting a taxi ride is not that expensive, so why drink and drive.

The police departments in Thailand are not equipped in the same way as UK, or USA

or Canada. They do not have the multi million dollar communication systems.

It is funny that the tourist police, did not check with the local police though, but

what the heck, looks like face book saved the day.

But the taxi's are all drunk at 1am.

[/quote

They may be like me and are better drivers with a few slabs of beer taken .

[lavender19]

He obviously did not have the cash to pay his way out..

[Tonybeerd]

Dont drink and drive get a bus or taxi ? But the driver is more pissed than the passenger !

[TimmyT]

No condoning drink driving, but locking someone up for what appears to be at least 58 hours without communication or counsel is just wrong.

If caught for drink driving you should be banged to rights, but you also have a right to due process as well. Along the lines of arrested, taken to local police station processed and released with a trial date. It should not take almost 3 days and possibly cost someone their job.

agree. it would be much better to deport him in 24 hours. because by drunk drinving he was risking lifes of innocent cinvillians, citizen of this country.

[beowolf2012]

What happen to that case where a thai touristdriver kill a

policeman on mortorbike? He was also drunk. The minivan driver.

[Felt 35]

There are really a lot of quality tourists in Phuket.

.....if the last 6 months are a indication on what Phuket is in for, teaching tourist will outnumber even the Chinese charter tourists in the future

[GaryAdriaenssens]

His days at that school are numbered I guess....

[NamKangMan]

His days at that school are numbered I guess....

He teaches English - not maths.

[NamKangMan]

What happen to that case where a thai touristdriver kill a

policeman on mortorbike? He was also drunk. The minivan driver.

No money in locking up a Thai minivan driver on 6000 to 7000 baht a month.

A lot more money, for everyone, for locking up a foreigner.