Phuket police arrested a young Australian man on Monday for allegedly filing a false complaint that he was the victim of an armed robbery in an attempt to get an insurance payment.
Police said AIex Gorgees,19, went to Karon police station about 11.30pm Sunday and told a duty officer that he had been robbed by two men and a woman while walking on Karon beach behind Club Med about 9pm.
He said the three robbers were Thai and threatened him with a knife and fled with an iPhone 6, a wristwatch, a gold necklace, a gold ring and some cash worth a total of 389,500 baht, ASTVManager reported on Monday.
Pol Col Sompong Boonrat, chief of Karon police station, assigned investigators to track down the thieves. The examined security camera footage in the area and on nearby streets, and questioned Mr Gorgees’s friend.
They reported that Mr Gorgees was just riding motorcycle around Karon sub-district area at the time he said he was robbed.
A subsequent search of his room found all the valuables he reported were stolen.
Police questioned Mr Gorgees again and he confessed to making the false claim, saying he wanted to use the police report to claim money from an insurance company once he returned to Australia.