Expats call for Pattaya clean-up

A group of expatriates in Pattaya have joined a network aimed at making the infamous city a better place to live and do business.

Published: 17/09/2012 at 12:00 AM
Writer: Wassayos Ngamkham

Twelve of the network's 15 members, mostly business figures, met Crime Suppression Division (CSD) officers recently to discuss what one of them called the "cancerous" crime levels in the resort town.

Pattaya has struggled to shake off its image of crime and vice, much of which comes from foreign mafia groups based there.

The meeting of the expats and police was arranged by Pol Lt Col Natthapong Trongthieng, inspector of the CSD 2nd sub-division.

"We had to go to them or we wouldn't understand their problems. It's our job to serve not only Thais but foreign communities as well," he said.

He said many expats married locals and raised their families in Pattaya, so the police should listen to their problems.

Pol Lt Col Natthaphong said the idea of police meeting foreigners derives from the "Community Policing" concept initiated by Pol Lt Gen Pongpat Chayapan, commissioner of Central Investigation Bureau.

"It is part of the police's job to work with the community," Pol Lt Col Natthaphong said.

"There is not only a Thai community in Pattaya. Many foreigners also live with their Thai spouses there. It is our responsibility to listen to them," the inspector said.

So far, 15 foreigners have joined the network, including nationals from Denmark, France, Belgium and India.

The group has also invited Jusmag Thai, an American unit which takes care of US soldiers in Thailand, to get involved.

At the recent meeting, the expats identified the jetski scam run by mafia-like operators on Pattaya beach as the most critical issue for tourists, the police said.

In the scam, people who rent jetskis are forced to pay inflated sums for repairs when they return the craft.

The jetskis already have superficial damage before they are rented out, but the customers tend not to notice as the damage is usually on the underside of the craft, obscured by water.

Pol Lt Col Natthaphong said most of the victims want to avoid making further trouble with the gang, so they pay up instead of seeking help from the police.

The police said the problem has gone on for a long time and officers have struggled to find a practical solution.

Pol Lt Col Natthaphong said two jetski and speedboat operators in South Pattaya have been identified as members of extortion gangs.

"Foreigners are active in these gangs. They can speak many languages. We are now working to bring them to justice," the police said.

Pol Lt Col Natthaphong suggested the jetski scandal could be solved by compiling an operator list, separating the legal and illegal groups and collecting evidence to catch the perpetrators.

"The police work must be done step by step.

"Sudden enforcement may initially scare away the wrongdoers, but they will finally return to the business. We are trying to bring as many honest operators on to our side as possible," Pol Lt Col Natthaphong said.

Charun Pongwuthitham, a 48-year-old jetski operator who has run his business for more than 10 years, said he agreed with the foreign community's participation in helping to curb crime in Pattaya.

Mr Charun claimed some foreigners collaborated with jetski operators in extorting money from the tourists.

He agreed that a list of jetski operators needed to be drawn up and they should be required to insure their craft against damage.

The establishment of the foreigners' network is a good idea, said 64-year-old businessman Niels Colon, who participated in the talk with police.

It will encourage direct talks over problems and could lead to clear solutions, he said.

"Pattaya has many problems. There is still a language barrier between the police and foreigners. It is good that the police are now paying attention to these problems," he said.

Another foreign participant, who did not give his name, said problems may drive tourists away from Pattaya to the other resort areas.

That would have a negative effect on the city's businesses, he said.

He added that he and his friends in the network would deliver information about crimes to police in a bid to support the officers in enforcing the law.

Contact Crime Track: crimetrack@bangkokpost.co.th

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Discussion 1 : 24/09/2012 at 10:13 PM: In my opinion, foreigners have no business becoming involved in the affairs of The Kingdom of Thailand. I've traveled in Thailand, and I commend the people and government of Thailand, for outstanding improvements in infastructure, i.e., airport, roads and keeping things in good shape compared to a lot of other places I've visited. I've walked along the river-walk in Phitsanulok, Thailand, and the place is clean and beautiful. I'm wondering why a foreigner would complain about Walking-Street in Pattaya? I stopped in at one of the clubs on Walking-street and found the place to be friendly with a wonderful atmosphere. No-one forces you to go to Walking street, or to Pattya. Anytime foreigners try and push their agenda/policy in a foreign country, it usually does more harm then good. Foreigners with college degrees need to do something constructive while in Thailad, such as building a school in the countryside, or teaching a few free classes at Thai high-schools and colleges. Leave the cleanup duties to the locals.
Discussion 2 : 17/09/2012 at 06:05 PM: This is a place to start but also I think that the City needs to clean up the streets ( Trash and Garbage ) As you walk around there is trash all over the place. The people of Pattaya need to clean their yards and side walks of the trash and I mean all over not just their front walks. The streets and gutters. I noticed that the "walk and don't walk signs" are mostly not operating after what one years of installing them. Way to go Pattaya, good job. I'm sure that there are other Departments that have some responsibility for different services. Where are these people and what are they doing? Oh! Another thing how about paying attention to the side walks and roads. I notice that alittle bit gets done each year but The Government workers seem to only work part time. Doesn't Pattaya have any full time workers?
Discussion 3 : 17/09/2012 at 05:51 PM: This is the biggest joke EVER, the jet sky scam is beating a dead horse, we ALL know who are behind the perpetrators. It's the foreign criminals which needs exposing and rooting out. One guy in the picture is a known ex criminal from Denmark recently recorded as vowing to help to protect another foreign criminal (not yet in the picture, will be invited soon) who is currently on trial for extortion and black mail of another foreigner to the sum of Baht 7 Mln. Why are the cops so gullible as to not see whit whom they are dealing? Or is it a cozy relationship to pretend they are doing something? There is a totally different under swell going on exposing the foreign criminals in Pattaya but that is not done in photo-op meetings. Foreign criminals beware you are drawing too much attention with your scams defrauding other expats in Pattaya. Pol Lt Col Natthapong Trongthieng, you recently started your post here, please have a look at blog written by a crime reporter and investigator named Andre Drummond, he is well known exposing crimes and who are behind it, you will be surprised with whom you are in contact here.
Discussion 4 : 17/09/2012 at 05:14 PM: All of you who see Pattaya just as a bad place did you never go to Walking Street and other such vicious places? I doubt! For me having a reputable business and a family I have many places to go and if any friend (from another world) visits me he/she will see those places or has to abstain from asking me to join. Again Pattaya is for sure not a beautiful city – I go to other countries if I want to see such a place – but still a place where someone can have a good life without being in the red-light or scam business.
Discussion 5 : 17/09/2012 at 04:12 PM: foreign mafia running the jet ski scams? Uh, how about Thais running the jet ski scams. And, why would foreigners go the Thai Police for help, when the Thai Police are in on the scams. This is another in a long of line of "appease the Farang" articles where it is made to look like the Thai Government is doing something when, in fact, they are doing absolutely nothing at all.
Discussion 6 : 17/09/2012 at 03:14 PM: If you decide that the world's largest open air brothel is a good place to raise your family, then really I have no sympathy, you reap what you sow
Discussion 7 : 17/09/2012 at 02:08 PM: Parts of pattaya is no different to parts of Bangkok, new York, LA, London, Manchester, Liverpool, Sydney.......shud I go on?
Discussion 8 : 17/09/2012 at 01:26 PM: Very good action taken !! To solve this problem not easy, with a deep corrupted Police force. and a paradise for money lundering.
Discussion 9 : 17/09/2012 at 12:28 PM: D28 Don’t point fingers on Pattaya only. Yes Pattaya has a very bad image because of the extreme nightlife - which is appreciated by the way by many Bangkokians who roam the streets and venues specially on weekends – crime and jet ski scams and others and of course beaches you want to go; however Bangkok (I have lived there before for many years) has an even more extensive nightlife, all kinds of scams and crimes and an air hard to breath and I’m advised by friends not walking in Bangkok in the night anywhere. Last but not least we have a lot of honest business and retired people not only bad boys. Bad boys are everywhere in the world.
Discussion 10 : 17/09/2012 at 12:21 PM: @buster: If the police and/or politicians would care about the wellbeing and security of tourist and expats then maybe they should invite some honest expats and tourists. At least they should avoid any known criminals. But I guess honest foreigners, after living some time in Thailand, would not want to mingle with the police. After all, they don’t want to ruin their reputation.
Discussion 11 : 17/09/2012 at 11:45 AM: please pay attention to the phrase, "raising their families with their Thai spouse" in Thailand. The silent majority has finally spoken. I am absolutly convinced that the incentive of hurting their image and business is a pretext to realy cry foul about crime protection and unreliable law enforcement. When i advocated a (political) lobbying agency whom could express the expatriates needs and worries in The Kingdom, I was ridiculed, still I think that this nobel initiative should bare a broader natiowide backbench support. Our needs and worries are namely just the same as most ordinary Thai citizens have, lack of security !!!!
Discussion 12 : 17/09/2012 at 10:29 AM: Good idea to clean up the mafia .It must be embarrassing for the police to know they dont actually run the town .
Discussion 13 : 17/09/2012 at 10:06 AM: Phuket and Koh Samui have the same problems as in Pattaya. The problem is coming from the Thai administration where corrupted civil servants love bad boys, Thais and foreigners alike, where their businesses are mainly to cheat customers or want to stay afloat in business, they need protection and legal papers through illegal ways and are ready to pay under the table influential people and corrupted civil servants to protect them. Change the law and send corrupted civil servants in jail and seize theirs assets....then life will be different in Thailand.
Discussion 14 : 17/09/2012 at 09:51 AM: I don’t think prostitution is a problem in Pattaya. Why else would tourists and expats go there? Perhaps because of the clean beaches and tranquil atmosphere?
Discussion 15 : 17/09/2012 at 09:51 AM: Don’t worry D10 you will not find any group of foreigner’s drinking water in Bangkok either and for all those seeing Pattaya as the “City of Sin” look around in Bangkok it’s all there a lot bigger maybe better hidden.
Discussion 16 : 17/09/2012 at 09:47 AM: A group of 15 foreigners out of a couple of hundred thousand or more will not make a difference; cleaning-up a city (place) is the responsibility of the (local) Government and not the foreigners. I don’t mean foreigners should not talk about it but listening to them is another story.
Discussion 17 : 17/09/2012 at 09:29 AM: For those that have written that prostitution is the biggest problem, could you explain how? I assume those people are refering to the go-go and beer bars and the people that work in them. How are they a bigger problem than the jetski operators who scam foreigners and then threaten violence? While the police look on and then advise the victims to pay up and avoid trouble, so they can get their cut.
Discussion 18 : 17/09/2012 at 09:03 AM: jacksprat Pattaya was indeed built on vice, it was just a sleepy fishing village before the US servicemen where sent there on R n R during the Vietnam war. They came down from Udon Thani, where there already was a established vice industry. Then it just transfered down to Pattaya. The Udon/Isaan - Pattaya "route" is still thriving of course. Had the US military chosen another place to send their soldiers, Pattaya would still be a pretty sleepy place.
Discussion 19 : 17/09/2012 at 08:54 AM: D 20 well said and yes 80% of foreign should go for a start then followed by 90% of the Police 90% City Hall Office and then may be you can start to move forward
Discussion 20 : 17/09/2012 at 08:53 AM: Why would anyone in Pattaya (or anywhere else in Thailand) talk to the police to solve a decade old scam? Do these farangs really think the police do not know about it? Do they think the police are doing anything against the criminals? There might be in total 20 jet-ski operators on the Pattaya and Jomtien beaches. It would be enough to have one honest police officer per jet-sky vendor (maybe with a camera) to permanently erase this problem. Does this happen? No! Why? I guess they can’t find 20 honest police officers in Pattaya…
Discussion 21 : 17/09/2012 at 08:53 AM: Just google "niels colov" denmark! and he is the tourist police chief i hear..... unbelievable.--- and our police listen to him?
Discussion 22 : 17/09/2012 at 08:27 AM: Isn't it funny to see that one of the biggest criminals, convicted of pimping in Denmark, is the one talking to the police?
Discussion 23 : 17/09/2012 at 08:23 AM: I went once in pataya for a week but after 2 days i decide to leave this place when i saw what was hapening around me. a man with 2 young( 16-17 y o ) womans dress like prostitute go in the room beside mine...then i see russian men sooooo drunk they where unable to stay on their feet and arguing with thai woman for ???? plus the noise from jetski on the beach...so i said to myself ok thats enought for one day.. i will never go there again.....so many bad comments i ear about that place + now i read this about the jetski scam .heheheh...No thanks. never again
Discussion 24 : 17/09/2012 at 08:15 AM: Arrived on a package tour in 1987 that included Pattaya, the hotel room had warnings in the room about jet ski ripoffs, so in the last 25 years nothing has been done, they are obviously protected and nothing ever will happen. Pattaya was OK for a short holiday which is what it is designed for, but how could anyone actually live there? I wonder if Sodom and Gomorrah had a clean up the town movement, didn't help there either.
Discussion 25 : 17/09/2012 at 08:01 AM: @discussion 8 - Pattaya was not built on vice. I remember a time when it was a pleasant beach resort where I visited with my wife. However it has turned into a cess pool, and I have no desire ever to go there again. Cleaning the city of gangs both local and foreign will take some doing. Good luck to them.
Discussion 26 : 17/09/2012 at 07:58 AM: No beers during the meeting? A good sign indeed!
Discussion 27 : 17/09/2012 at 07:34 AM: How are jetskis the most pressing issue an an area with illegal prostitution, gang violence and murder?
Discussion 28 : 17/09/2012 at 07:24 AM: Don't know why wone would want to live in Patthaya anyhow, but you can either do nothing, or you can at least try to do someting to change it. So... at least they try. The Thai's chronic "what can we do" and "we can't change it anyhow" is the reason Thailand is where it is.
Discussion 29 : 17/09/2012 at 07:08 AM: Good luck guys/
Discussion 30 : 17/09/2012 at 07:01 AM: Prostitution is number one problem? Get real without the open sex trade, Pattaya would die slowly and surely, Most of the trade is open and honest, and part of whatfun nature of the city. of course the scum then attach themselves to drag it down. The beach and the sea are dirty, the Beach isn't excessible thanks to the vendors, The traffic going the wrong way round, and making crossing to the beach area an effort, and the unfinished Beach walkway soon has people thinking?, How many more motorcycles can they put along beach road , and why do most streets look dirty during the day time, including walking street.
Discussion 31 : 17/09/2012 at 06:58 AM: First step to clean up Pattaya should be to make a list, long list of all the problems on hand, prioritize them, make resources available both human and finance and then get going, but patience will be required because the list will be long. ---- one big advantage that Pattaya have in getting things done is that it is a bit independent with it's own Governor...Phuket, Samui and Hua Hin is lacking in that area.
Discussion 32 : 17/09/2012 at 06:13 AM: Amazing picture: I never saw so many farangs together in Pattaya drinking water.
Discussion 33 : 17/09/2012 at 06:03 AM: Pattaya is money making machine. The problem is that so many parts of that machine is technical "illegal" but accepted by the local BiB. BiB-Officers are paying huge sums to be posted in Pattaya. So, a clean up starts with the local BiB:s..
Discussion 34 : 17/09/2012 at 05:33 AM: How can you clean up a place built on vice...its certaibly not a family freindly holiday destination.
Discussion 35 : 17/09/2012 at 05:26 AM: "He added that he and his friends in the network would deliver information about crimes to police " and when the mafia finds out they snitch that will be the end of the foreigner. Pattaya isn't anywhere that a police force can ensure the personal safety of anyone. If you get between the mafia and the money in Thailand, you had better watch out. Jetskies being identified as problem #1 in Pattaya? How about drugs and prostition, racketeering, Russian and Nigerian gangsters, high crime on beach road. If jetskies top the list this group already failed.
Discussion 36 : 17/09/2012 at 05:10 AM: These jet ski scams have been going on for years. There have been many complaints and even utube videos of the scheme. Yet the police have allowed them to continue to rip off tourists. Either the police don't care or they are getting a cut of the action. I doubt anything will change. Business as usual on the beach.
Discussion 37 : 17/09/2012 at 04:50 AM: Perhaps the links between political figures,Thai police and the "mafias" from overseas should be the first place to look? I have commented many times here on the most obvious, blonde haired, mini skirted East European hookers working Bangkok, Pattaya and Phuket, in obvious locations and in full view of any police that bother to look.Why are they not rounded up and shipped out?We know why.
Discussion 38 : 17/09/2012 at 04:42 AM: You reap what you sow, keep it up people of Pattaya keep ripping the tourist off sure they will be back for you to rip them off again, the land of smile turn in to the land of greed. from iPhone application.
Discussion 39 : 17/09/2012 at 04:39 AM: Jet skis should be banned period...you cant reform an activity that has been so lucrative for these gangs they will not stop..
Discussion 40 : 17/09/2012 at 04:01 AM: Jet skis are the biggest corruption problem in Pattaya?!?! Look at the photo. It is the blind leading the blind. How can anyone come to Pattaya and mot see that prostitution and drugs are the number one problem?!?! Only if you are a sex tourist and a drug user would you see jet skis as the number one problem. Give me a break. Russia controls Pattaya now anyway.....
Discussion 41 : 17/09/2012 at 03:30 AM: They should deal with the stench of the poor sewage, drains first. I'd rather live up east than that seedy stinking hole. from iPhone application.

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