Premier Bar Bangrak manager arrested for selling alcohol on Buddha Day on Koh Samui

[webfact]

Premier Bar Bangrak manager arrested for selling alcohol on Buddha Day

 

Posted by John Martucci

 

KOH SAMUI: -- Deano Bryant, the manager of the Premier Bar in Bangrak was arrested last night by the tourist police. Bar owner John Martucci followed the police car to the station.

 

In a video on his Facebook page Martuccis says “Ok, we go police station! We are going police station, with tourist police, not sure what is going on people, but Deano, Deano’s under the kosh, he is in handcuffs, he is in the car in front, two of my girls are with me and we are going to find out what is going on, not sure, hang on, let’s have a look, lots of red lights and stuff. I don’t know, maybe I never see you again! “

 

On Feb 10th Mr Martucci posted this message “Just had the boys in brown in – absolutely no alcohol from midnight tonight until midnight tomorrow – but Premier Sports Bar will be open from 9pm beer after 11.59pm”.

 

Prior to the arrest Martucci posted a video showing the tourist police enter his bar in which he says “ OK Liverpool have just scored, they have gone one nil up, we are at Premier Sports Bar, tourist police come strolling in, blues and twos giving it all the lines, there you go, this is the car, so they have turned up telling me I am not allowed to sell beer after twelve o clock, when the police came in yesterday and said we can sell beer after twelve o clock, so we are going live, it’s all happening at Premier Sports Bar, and now we have got the police here, tourist police mind you, not the real police, Liverpool have gone one nil up as I said, it’s all going on, they want me to go to the police station it aint happening I’ve got my passport, I’ve got my f*****g work permit, he wants me to go to the police station, I told him to naff off. Shall we go and ask the policeman what is going on, live? On Facebook, let’s go and ask him, he can’t delete this can he, so…….”

 

He then walks behind his bar down to where the policeman is standing and says “hello, what is going on, we finish yet or not? “ the police then speak in Thai to the barmaid telling her Martucci must go to the police station, he says “no, I am not going to the police station I do nothing wrong” however, shortly after this video the second video of him driving to the police station is posted.

 

Later Martucci posts “OK folks, I’m out of jail 41.000 baht lighter, 12 hours in the VIP suite at Chaweng police station then a nice chill at koh Samui provincial courts, court fine 1000 baht (£22) police T money 40.000 (£950)

 

After our article was published Deano Bryant told the Samui Times he went voluntarily to the police station and was not in handcuffs as Martucci said on his Facebook video clip. He also said he wanted to make it clear that the court case was with regards to alcohol being served after midnight and had nothing to do with the Buddha day. 

 

Source: http://www.samuitimes.com/premier-bar-bangrak-manager-arrested-selling-alcohol-buddha-day/

 

-- © Copyright Samui Times 2017-02-13

 

[Thaiwrath]

57 minutes ago, webfact said:

he wants me to go to the police station, I told him to naff off

 

Not a good idea, did the same myself, and paid the consequences.

It taught me, that if you have dealings with the authorities here, it is always best to act with a bit of diplomacy, rather than to be rude to them.

Yes, sometimes you have to bite your lip, but better to be safe than sorry. And if it is a case of them losing face, because of your actions, they will throw the book at you, bearing in mind that the court officials will side with them, not the rude farang. 

[Thechook]

So if he wasn't selling on Buddha Day but after the stroke of midnight what is the offence?  From what I read he was informed that he could sell after midnight but then other police turn up and go great tea money

[Get Real]

It was widely known and many warnings out. Do not sell alcohol between certain times this specific day. He just had to break it. Right, he should pay the price!
I would rather say he don´t pay for selling beer, but he pay for being ignorant and stupid.

[scorecard]

2 hours ago, Thaiwrath said:

 

Not a good idea, did the same myself, and paid the consequences.

It taught me, that if you have dealings with the authorities here, it is always best to act with a bit of diplomacy, rather than to be rude to them.

Yes, sometimes you have to bite your lip, but better to be safe than sorry. And if it is a case of them losing face, because of your actions, they will throw the book at you, bearing in mind that the court officials will side with them, not the rude farang. 

 

" Not a good idea, did the same myself, and paid the consequences.

It taught me, that if you have dealings with the authorities here, it is always best to act with a bit of diplomacy, rather than to be rude to them. ...."

 

Is that exclusive to Thailand? Surely your point is relevant to anywhere, why make it sound like it's exclusive to Thailand? 

[Thaiwrath]

4 minutes ago, scorecard said:

 

" Not a good idea, did the same myself, and paid the consequences.

It taught me, that if you have dealings with the authorities here, it is always best to act with a bit of diplomacy, rather than to be rude to them. ...."

 

Is that exclusive to Thailand? Surely your point is relevant to anywhere, why make it sound like it's exclusive to Thailand? 

I do not see where I suggest it is exclusive to Thailand. I was commenting on a topic in a Thailand forum, about an incident that happened in Thailand.

 

Edited February 13, 2017 by Thaiwrath

[FunkyDunky58]

Plenty of places off the main drags sell alcohol on these days. I went to a suburban restaurant and had beer with my lunch. Went back there for Dinner and had several with some friends. Lots of Thais drinking too. 

[AhFarangJa]

A Thai restaurant owner on soi 94 in Hua Hin was fined 10,000 Baht Saturday afternoon. She was selling drinks with meals, so not just Farangs targeted.

Can someone please tell me who actually makes this rule up, is it the Government or the police? 

[carmine]

2 hours ago, Get Real said:

It was widely known and many warnings out. Do not sell alcohol between certain times this specific day. He just had to break it. Right, he should pay the price!
I would rather say he don´t pay for selling beer, but he pay for being ignorant and stupid.

Oh right, thanks for clearing that one up for us.  So, perhaps you can explain why alcohol was readily available in Chaweng after midnight from what i was told by someone that was there? 

 

Perhaps the alcohol ban was exclusive to Bangrak?

 

Care to enlighten us?

Edited February 13, 2017 by carmine

[Get Real]

13 minutes ago, carmine said:

Oh right, thanks for clearing that one up for us.  So, perhaps you can explain why alcohol was readily available in Chaweng after midnight from what i was told by someone that was there? 

 

Perhaps the alcohol ban was exclusive to Bangrak?

 

Care to enlighten us?

When did I say that this was the only stupid person, or that this was the only place you could get alcohol. I know there are many people disregarding all that has to do with respect, rules and laws. They are all same stupid and disrespecful. Just don´t understand what you want me to enlighten. Maybe you want me to enlighten your stupid way of understanding a post. Sorry, can´t do that.

[Tchooptip]

2 hours ago, scorecard said:

 

" Not a good idea, did the same myself, and paid the consequences.

It taught me, that if you have dealings with the authorities here, it is always best to act with a bit of diplomacy, rather than to be rude to them. ...."

 

Is that exclusive to Thailand? Surely your point is relevant to anywhere, why make it sound like it's exclusive to Thailand? 

It is not exclusive to Thailand at all... but better to know in Thailand it is mandatory 

[ronaldo0]

This was seemingly for selling drink after 12am not for selling drink on Buddha day.

If this is the case they will need a bigger jail as there are hundreds of places selling drink after 12am in samui.

As far as I know 2am is the latest you can sell drink without having to have a late license .

[oldsailor35]

4 hours ago, Get Real said:

It was widely known and many warnings out. Do not sell alcohol between certain times this specific day. He just had to break it. Right, he should pay the price!
I would rather say he don´t pay for selling beer, but he pay for being ignorant and stupid.

Please go tell John that he is ignorant stupid to his face !  Really i think that it is you who is "Ignorant and stupid"   Buddha day was over after 12pm !  get it stupid. He did NOT break the Buddha Day rule so don't be so bloody ignorant.....stupid !

 

[oldsailor35]

For those who do not know. The Premier Bar at Bang Rak is probably one of the best run bars on the island. Never any trouble and always respect the law. It is a bar where family can go and enjoy Pub Quiz and Sport without being molested by girls looking for money. They have catering licence and play Pool in the local league. Yes a really decent  bar which has been raided by "Tea money collectors" Where is the General when he is needed !

I hope this action goes international, let the rest of the world see all about police reputation.

Yes i am <deleted> angry.    BHT 41, 000 indeed.

[Get Real]

Just now, oldsailor35 said:

Please go tell John that he is ignorant stupid to his face !  Really i think that it is you who is "Ignorant and stupid"   Buddha day was over after 12pm !  get it stupid. He did NOT break the Buddha Day rule so don't be so bloody ignorant.....stupid !

 

Okey, I´m stupid, but it´s not me riding around in police cars.

[oldsailor35]

1 hour ago, AhFarangJa said:

A Thai restaurant owner on soi 94 in Hua Hin was fined 10,000 Baht Saturday afternoon. She was selling drinks with meals, so not just Farangs targeted.

Can someone please tell me who actually makes this rule up, is it the Government or the police? 

Seems to me that Farangs were targeted AFTER Buddha day.

 

[premiersportsbar]

Guys on behalf of Premier Sports Bar I would like to clarify exactly what happened as it may effect all alcohol licence holders.

the headline is misleading and inaccurate, I was not "busted" for selling alcohol on a Buddha day, this is rubbish and made up

i honoured all criteria regards the alcohol sales for this day, the police called in at 11.30pm and were happy to see us only selling soft drinks.

 As part of the community we had opened our doors at 9pm to host our regular guests for the evenings schedule of football,  they come week in week out, so running the bar with little to no return was never going to be an issue for us.

after midnight the tourist police arrived and wanted to know why we were selling after midnight, now here's comes the bombshell  - ALL alcohol licenses only allow you to serve until midnight ( yep, even after owning a bar 9 years I was unaware of this) the only alcohol licenses that allow to stay open until 2am have to fall within what's classed as an entertainment zone and it's a special entertainment licence.

i hope this goes a long way to explain the truth behind this inaccurate article, we rely on the community to keep all our staff and management in payroll Samui times and their absent editor rely on advertisers for their payroll.

[premiersportsbar]

20 minutes ago, Get Real said:

Okey, I´m stupid, but it´s not me riding around in police cars.

Maybe you should read my comment and my explanation of the night's occurrence.

the entire problem comes from the disgraced journalist Susan Bucannon, I exposed her when she held a fundraiser in Bangrak for a guy aledgedly dying of cancer, I called her out and I expressed that I thought it was a scam, she never proved nothing about no cancer victim but fled away from Thailand with the money and hid in the UK, where she has now written this article, she stalks me and has taken all this info from my Facebook page, only she missed out to say that "I don't know what's going on" I went vaulentary to the police station to save my staff from going through this ordeal.

[flamesfan]

48 minutes ago, ronaldo0 said:

This was seemingly for selling drink after 12am not for selling drink on Buddha day.

If this is the case they will need a bigger jail as there are hundreds of places selling drink after 12am in samui.

As far as I know 2am is the latest you can sell drink without having to have a late license .

Thailand the law is 12:00 AM no alcohol sales after midnight. Not always enforced, but it has been enforced in Chiang Mai, as I own a restaurant/bar.

[ronaldo0]

2 minutes ago, flamesfan said:

Thailand the law is 12:00 AM no alcohol sales after midnight. Not always enforced, but it has been enforced in Chiang Mai, as I own a restaurant/bar.

I have owned a bar/restaurant in samui for 4 years and have many friends who own similar places here , some for 13 years.

Not once have I seen anywhere close before 2am unless the area was dead and then usually the owners closed and went to meet at a busy bar.

Seems odd that nobody gets told this by their lawyers who usually sort out the licenses .

[Tocher]

Amongst all the childish responses to this story only a couple touched on the salient point.

 

The tourist police and the court "fined" Deano for selling alcohol after midnight. The fact that this particular midnight marked the end of a Buddha day is irrelevant.

 

I for one was totally unaware that there is a midnight cut off time for selling beer on Samui. It is certainly not the cut off time in Chaweng or Lamai which is and has always been 2.00 a.m.

 

I've just read the Premiere bars last reply about the reporter and it would seem there is much more to this than meets the eye, however there would also seem to be a discrepancy between the serving hours in Bangrak and other areas of Samui.

 

Again I've just read Flamesfan's reply and that pedantic statement may be true but the reality is that if there is a midnight cut off for alcohol sales in 'Thailand law' it has never been enforced here before.

 

If the Samui BIB want to earn a small fortune in "fines" just visit Chaweng or Lamai on any given night.

 

To me, it looks like Premiere Bar was targeted for other reasons than selling beer after midnight.

Regards.

Ian.

 

 

 

 

[Gulfsailor]

The midnight closing time for all bars, restaurants and nightclubs has been a law as long as I remember. The only exception are venues in I think 4 designated entertainment zones which are all located in Bangkok. I've been telling quite a few bar owners of this law in recent years, but none would believe me. In recent weeks the new samui tourist police boss has been his making rounds in Samui, fining a lot of bars for selling after midnight. Similar reports from Phuket and since a long time already from Chiang Mai. 

[Thechook]

36 minutes ago, premiersportsbar said:

Maybe you should read my comment and my explanation of the night's occurrence.

the entire problem comes from the disgraced journalist Susan Bucannon, I exposed her when she held a fundraiser in Bangrak for a guy aledgedly dying of cancer, I called her out and I expressed that I thought it was a scam, she never proved nothing about no cancer victim but fled away from Thailand with the money and hid in the UK, where she has now written this article, she stalks me and has taken all this info from my Facebook page, only she missed out to say that "I don't know what's going on" I went vaulentary to the police station to save my staff from going through this ordeal.

She never proved nothing about no cancer.

 

Sorry I'm finding it hard to understand what you actually mean here

Edited February 13, 2017 by Thechook

[BangrakBob]

57 minutes ago, oldsailor35 said:

For those who do not know. The Premier Bar at Bang Rak is probably one of the best run bars on the island. Never any trouble and always respect the law. It is a bar where family can go and enjoy Pub Quiz and Sport without being molested by girls looking for money. They have catering licence and play Pool in the local league. Yes a really decent  bar which has been raided by "Tea money collectors" Where is the General when he is needed !

I hope this action goes international, let the rest of the world see all about police reputation.

Yes i am <deleted> angry.    BHT 41, 000 indeed.

I second this statement, nice bloke and lovely staff and have been for years!

[Get Real]

41 minutes ago, premiersportsbar said:

Maybe you should read my comment and my explanation of the night's occurrence.

the entire problem comes from the disgraced journalist Susan Bucannon, I exposed her when she held a fundraiser in Bangrak for a guy aledgedly dying of cancer, I called her out and I expressed that I thought it was a scam, she never proved nothing about no cancer victim but fled away from Thailand with the money and hid in the UK, where she has now written this article, she stalks me and has taken all this info from my Facebook page, only she missed out to say that "I don't know what's going on" I went vaulentary to the police station to save my staff from going through this ordeal.

Yes I have been reading up on this, and I missunderstood the time and day. Someone also reminded me of that here. I understand that it was after the ban should have been lifted, and apologize for my earlier comments.

[nakhonandy]

Midnight close of all bars in Thailand with a few areas excluded. Sounds odd but I don't know so will believe it.

 

Somebody obviously forgot to tell Pattaya/Jomtien as practically none shut before midnight.

 

Sounds like police targeting to me.

[khunPer]

1 hour ago, Gulfsailor said:

The midnight closing time for all bars, restaurants and nightclubs has been a law as long as I remember. The only exception are venues in I think 4 designated entertainment zones which are all located in Bangkok. I've been telling quite a few bar owners of this law in recent years, but none would believe me. In recent weeks the new samui tourist police boss has been his making rounds in Samui, fining a lot of bars for selling after midnight. Similar reports from Phuket and since a long time already from Chiang Mai. 

Thanks for the information.

 

I thought the "Tourist Police" was ment to support tourists and make them feel safe – believe many a tourist comes to Thailand for at bit of fun and nightlife, which can simply be to meet pals, or watch a sports game on TV together with other fans a late night (time difference to Europe/US), still being able to drink a beer, or glass of wine, or...

 

It's a questions of balance – and yes, foreigners and tourists can easily accept probation during special culture occasions like Buddha Day, and Father's Day etc. – but if Thailand want tourism, including "quality tourists", they need to find a balance. Incidents like this one – and I noticed the comments about Samui Times – and the later years numerous other almost similar stories, do not promote the tourism well.

 

It's understandable if the local culture demand a closing time for alcohol sales at Midnight, not only in shops, but also licensed bars and restaurants, except in designated entertainment zones. Here come the question of balance, namely to establish enough "entertainment zones" in tourist areas, and to set reasonable rules for these zones – and keep the rules prospectively,  so everybody know what's going on. There could for example well be two classes of Entertainment Zone, one allowing for opening hours till for example 2 am, and another till 5 am.

 

Especially the islands Samui and Phangan are famous for partying, and guest are coming from all over the World for taking part in the parties – that was one of the originally main reasons for the beginning of tourism at these islands – and even there are today more family-tourists than before, the constant load of party-guests in one-or-other level, is massive; don't forget the number in 10,000s coming every month for a well known event on a sunrise beach, including the expected warm-up parties the days, or rather nights, before the main event, and after-parties the following nights. And today it's not only a once-a-month event, it's merely expected that something happens almost every night of the week. And I'm sure the partying also include tourists of "quality class", finding their way to the number of more up-end places, than the peasant's venues...

 

The importance of my point-of-view is, that tourism is such a fragile creature, which takes decades to build up, but can be killed dead-as-a-Dodo in almost no time. Two of the important factors for tourist's are "safety"; and "reliable planning", i.e. no changes of expectations. Articles has mentioned copyright for the "Full Moon Party"-name, as other Southeast Asia places are ready to copy that kind of attraction – my point is, that many a place in the vicinity of Thailand are becoming ready for mass tourism, and will love to take over some of this Nation's business. I noticed for example that a Vietnamese island, close to the Cambodian border, is establishing high end party events with famous entertainment names – today's party guests of Samui are not the low budget backpackers, as in the past hippie-age – they even made a new international airport, so you can fly directly in from Europe (there is already such direct charter flights from for example Stockholm). Beautiful sandy beaches, lots of palms, high-end many-star resorts, night life, reasonable prices – be aware if some of the usual suspects try something new, and talk about it; that's how Samui started, a few German backpackers that talked about it...

 

And by the way, the Midnight alcohol sales-stop seem quite unknown on this island. By mistake I thought Friday night would be business as usual – it used to be so at Samui with alcohol ban beginning in the early morning – but Chaweng was for a change mysteriously dead silent. However on the way back I noticed the typical Thai-style beer-bar with live band had a full-size party event – but perhaps they only drank coffee and red EST..? – and in numerous open bars along the Ring Road I noticed they served red Fanta in beer bottles...

 

Edited February 13, 2017 by khunPer

[PoorSucker]

Do Premier sports bar not pay a monthly 'fee' to the BIB as everyone else?

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[PoorSucker]

Troll post removed.

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[chickenrunCM]

funny that people who run bars in Samui don´t know about the law in thailand, alcohol is allowed to sell between 11 - 14 and 17 to midnight, and this should also be written on the alcohol license and the person who apply for the license has to sign that he is aware of the law when getting the license. 

As in Samui is no army and also police is not so present at man places may be they not enforce the law as they should do. 

In Chiang Mai where we are selling alcohol, police and army checking regular most of the bars, but anyway there are places running all night, because paying a large amount of money to the police or there are places where the thai people go eat and drink after late shifts (midnight) and this bars also open until early morning.

In Chiang Mai you see on one day more police passing our place than I see in Lamai in one month if i go out every night