Tourists 'told to pay or go to jail'

A Singaporean man who identified himself only as “Sky”, left, discusses alleged police extortion at the Davis Bangkok Hotel owned by former politician turned whistleblower Chuvit Kamolvisit on Wednesday. (Photo supplied)
A Singaporean man who identified himself only as “Sky”, left, discusses alleged police extortion at the Davis Bangkok Hotel owned by former politician turned whistleblower Chuvit Kamolvisit on Wednesday. (Photo supplied)

A Singaporean man who was with a Taiwanese actress who alleged earlier that her group was extorted said police told him to pay up or spend two days in jail for having vaping devices he'd bought in Bangkok.

The 29-year-old man who identified himself only as “Sky” appeared before reporters at the Davis Bangkok Hotel of former politician and massage parlour owner Chuvit Kamolvisit on Wednesday.

His appearance came a day after police said they would travel to Singapore and Taiwan to interview witnesses in the case and would not charge them with paying bribes.

Speaking mostly in Thai, Mr Sky said he and three friends including actress Charlene An had joined the birthday party of a friend at a restaurant in the Sukhumvit area on the night of Jan 3.

Afterward he and two friends including the actress took a Grab taxi to head for the Huai Khwang area.

At a police checkpoint in front of the Chinese embassy, police stopped their taxi and asked for their passports. He did not have his.

Police ordered them to get out of the cab and take off their shoes. Then police found his vapourisers and they were told that they would have to go to a police station.

The Singaporean man said he had three vaping devices but the Taiwanese actress had none.

Officers then seized the vapourisers and policemen in uniforms demanded they pay money to avoid charges related to vapourisers and alleged failure to have a visa. The Singaporean said he had a visa on arrival.

Police told them that they would be jailed for two days unless they made payment, according to Sky.

He then asked the policemen why vapourisers were illegal because they were generally available in Thailand.

Police told him that he had to pay 8,000 baht per vapouriser plus 3,000 baht for failure to carry a passport. The total was 27,000 baht.

“I was very stressed and wanted to get away quickly. I was afraid of police and imprisonment. So, I gave all the 30,000 baht that I had then and they took 27,000 baht,” Sky said.

He said the officers did not allow the tourists to use their phones and kept threatening to bring them to a police station.


After the payment, police called a taxi for his group.

Sky said he had bought vapourisers at a market in Huai Khwang without knowing that they were illegal. He said he saw them and understood that in the country the devices were legal like cannabis.

The Singaporean man said he would love to revisit Thailand in the future but he admitted he was afraid of Thai police and had already learned the Thai word thai, meaning extortion.

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Vocabulary

  • avoid: to try to prevent something from happening - หลีกเลี่ยง
  • bribe: money or a present given to someone so that they will help you doing something dishonest or illegal - สินบน
  • charge: to accuse someone officially of committing a crime - ตั้งข้อกล่าวหา
  • checkpoint: a place where people are stopped and questioned and vehicles are examined, especially at a border between two countries - ด่านตรวจ
  • embassy: a building where a group of officials work who represent their government in a foreign country - สถานทูต
  • extortion: the crime of trying to obtain something by force or threat - การขู่กรรโชก  รีดไถ
  • failure: the fact of something not working or stopping working -
  • identified (verb): named, searched for a discovered - ระบุ
  • imprisonment: the punishment of being put in prison - การจำคุก
  • stressed: affected by pressure, worry, etc. - วิตกกังวล
  • threaten: to say you might or will do something bad or harmful, especially in order to make someone do something - ขู่
  • vape (v): to inhale and exhale vapour containing nicotine and flavoring produced by a device designed for this purpose -
  • vapouriser (n): a device such as an electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) that produces vapour that can be inhaled -
  • witness: a person who sees something happen - ผู้ที่เห็นเหตุการณ์
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