A tattoo-artist riding a big bike won praise after a video clip showing him chasing down a taxi driver accused of stealing another cabbie's phone in Bangkok’s Bangkok Noi district was shared online.

The chase ended in a back-street when a plainclothes police officer stopped and arrested the fleeing driver.

Facebook user Sukan Khetvorakarn said he was taking his wife to the dentist on Monday. In soi Charan Sanit Wong 33 he saw the driver of a yellow taxi knocking on the door of a pink taxi, which sped off. He heard the yellow-taxi driver shouting that the other man had stolen his mobile phone.

He decided to give chase.

He followed the cab into the side streets behind Bangkok Noi post office, where a motorcyclist wearing a white crash helmet blocked the taxi's passage. The motorcyclist turned out to a police officer, who detained the cabbie, Mr Sukan told a TV station when interviewed on Thursday.

Mr Sukan, 24, a tattoo artist in Phran Nok of Bangkok Noi, posted the video from his dashcam on his Facebook account on Monday. The video was widely shared and he received a lot of praise. 

Media reports said the pink cab driver later tested positive for drugs, and admitted stealing the mobile phone.

The video from the dashcam of the motorcyclist who chased a thieving taxi driver through the back streets of Bangkok Noi on Monday. (Taken from Sukan Khetvorakarn Facebook page)