Hot tempers on stage, Surin car scam thrives, Kew's demise

Angry puppeteer leaves wife

Nong Daew, the blind leader of a famed southern Thai shadow puppet theatre troupe, has left his wife and mother of their two young children after a family row, but denies her claims he fled home to marry a woman from the Northeast.

Phanyat Suwanwaenthong, or Nang Nong Daew as he is also known, laid a complaint with Thungsong police in Nakhon Si Thammarat on Tuesday, claiming his wife, Sunisa "Jib" Suwanwaenthong, 31, and relatives had taken off with two cars, his bank book and a diary of concerts he was booked to perform after an argument at his home in which relatives from both sides were also present.

He asked police to track her down, adding that without his diary he was worried he could miss concerts and be sued by upset customers.

However, on Thursday Jib herself with family and a lawyer visited police at the station to deny claims she had absconded and urge her husband to return home. "I am back at home looking after our children as usual. The cars are also there, and I am still taking his bookings if customers get in touch," she said.

Sources close to the couple say they have been having problems for the past couple of years, amid suspicions by Jib that Daew has been seeing a woman on the side. Their problems came to a head last week with Jib claiming Daew secretly planned to see the mystery woman in Isan at the end of this month to propose marriage.

Daew, known for his hot temper, had a recent row with the monkhood in Songkhla after a temple monk claimed his performance fees were too high. Daew posted a tirade on social media in response, which resulted in seniors in the clergy refusing him access to temples unless he turned up to apologise in person.

His wife, Jib, whom he has known for 12 years, is feted for her good looks and usually accompanies her husband to work as his guide. Since the latest row, however, she complains he has sidelined her in favour of others.

Speaking from Chumphon early on Friday after performing in Lang Suan district before a temple crowd of 3,000, Daew told fans from the stage he was not to blame for the row, but vowed he did not want to make up with his wife.

He did not want to comment on the row, but denied he was seeing anyone on the side. However, reports say that, oddly, he asked the crowd often how they would feel if their spouse was unfaithful. When a drunk teased him with the claim, "Your wife has fled!" Daew responded with a tirade of abuse, the reports said. The saga continues.

Cops won't budge on complaint

A couple from Surin say they are having a hard time persuading police to accept a case in which the wife of a former senior policeman duped them into buying a car.

Police have declined to accept a complaint by Pimapsorn "Yui" Ruangdech, a former bank staffer who went public with her plight last week after she and her husband bought a car on behalf of a woman she knew who later failed to make repayments, removed the car's registration plates and claimed the vehicle was hers.

They say that despite Yui's claims that fraud was involved, with the accused allegedly behind a scam in which vehicles are sent across the border to be sold on the black market, they won't take criminal action on her behalf. Because Yui and her husband agreed to buy the vehicle, they would have to take civil action in court themselves, they said.

Yui said she has approached five stations in the province and Ubon Ratchathani where they bought the car, with all refusing to take it as a criminal case.

Yui says the woman on whose behalf her husband bought the second-hand Honda CR-V, identified as Chotmanee, or "Ta", told Yui she has problems securing credit, even though she also claimed to run a rice trading venture with 50 million baht in the bank.

She says she met Ta as a customer when she was working at a local bank. Ta asked for Yui's phone number so she could get in touch about transferring the funds to her branch. The transfer did not go ahead before Yui left, though the two women kept in touch, with Ta later offering Yui a job. "We spoke regularly. When she heard I had left the bank, she asked me to join her in business. She claimed to run a firm related to hom mali rice," adding she now believes the claim was bogus. Yui and her husband aired their plight on a TV show last week.

Ta's husband, she said, was a former deputy superintendent of Panom Dong Rak station in the province, now retired. "She asked me to have a look at a car and said she was on a credit blacklist so couldn't buy it herself. I said I probably wouldn't pass either as I was in debt. So she asked: 'What about your partner?'

"My husband and I were not keen but I decided to go ahead as she had offered me a job and I thought if I turned down her offer I might upset her," Yui said. Yui's husband, Chatchai "Poo" Chaisena, said he agreed to buy the car on Ta's behalf even though his own credit was poor, as he had only just bought a car himself. Car financing was approved, much to their surprise. "I guess no one checked my name with the credit bureau. The repayments are more than 10,000 baht a month. I was suspicious about how easily I was able to pass," he said.

However, Ta and her husband failed to make repayments, despite promising to clear the matter in the first three months. "She said she'd pay it off, but didn't. I had Yui go and see her at home. She met some elders there and the truth came out. They said Yui was tricked; this couple dupes people into buying them cars and then take the plates off the vehicles. They sell them across the border in just a few months, I am sure. They said ours was the fifth such case."

When Yui confronted Ta, she denied it was their vehicle, even though it still bore a vehicle insurance tax sticker bearing the same registration details it was sold with. They also threatened to lay a counter-complaint if they went to police.

Yui said she had been to five stations, without success, with the police saying they willingly gave their car over to the couple so would have to pursue the matter themselves. Celebrity lawyer Songkran Achariyasap, who also appeared on the show, said police should accept the case as a criminal matter, as it involved misappropriation of assets. Yui and Poo have contacted other victims in the case and plan to lodge a joint complaint.

Singer loses fight with depression

Lead singer of the band Friday Night To Sunday, Pooriwat "Kew" Suwanmanee, who took his life late last month, had a history of depression going back two years, his mother says.

Panee "Paew" Muangjan told reporters at Kew's funeral in Hat Yai last week she was too upset to return to his bedroom where he took his own life by hanging, and now wants to move home.

Ms Paew discovered her son's body in the early evening of Nov 29. Kew, 27, is best known for the pop song Hong Norn (Bedroom).

She said her son rarely spoke about his problems and tried to put on a good front for her sake. They lived together at their family home in Hat Yai, with Kew taking on most financial burdens including a mortgage and cost of two cars. He was a young man with a soft heart who liked to help the indigent and neglected animals, she said.

"I found out he was depressed from a Facebook post he wrote after a sleeping pill overdose early in 2017," she said. "Doctors gave meds for his depression but for the past five months he declared he wasn't ill and didn't want to take the pills as he was scared of the side effects. "On my birthday in October I told him not to buy anything, just made him promise to go back on his meds and keep taking them until he was better. He agreed," she said. She did not know if he was taking them at the time of his death.

In a Facebook message on Dec 13 last year, Kew told his fans he had thought many times about taking own life, and early the same year had taken an overdose of 40 sleeping pills. However, relatives were able to get him to hospital in time. In that message, and another one on May 31, 2017, which fans have dug up and shared on social media since his death, Kew spoke against suicide as a way out of life's problems, urging those feeling depressed to find the courage to fight on.

Kriangkrai Kiratipongphattana, a friend from secondary school days, said Kew worked hard, and could perform with his band at many spots every night. He suspected the cause was related to expenses at home.

Chanisa Seowkooyin, his girlfriend, said she knew he was ill with depression and tried to cheer his spirits. However, she noticed Kew started looking stressed after a recent trip to Chiang Mai. On the night of his death, Kew said he was getting dressed ready to go to work; but around 8pm, she heard the news he had taken his life.