Taxi driver returns half a million baht to Australian

A taxi driver returned lost dollars worth about 500,000 baht to his Australian passenger and a Vietnamese student was arrested for allegedly stealing a mobile phone at Suvarnabhumi airport on Friday.

Wimol Treepat, 62, of Nakhon Ratchasima province, returned A$20,000 (about 528,000 baht) to David Collinson, 59, at the Bangkok airport at 11.30pm Friday night.

Earlier, Mr Collinson flew from Australia to give the money to his Thai wife. Around noon, he hired Mr Wimol to drive him from the airport to the Mor Chit bus terminal. He realised he forgot the envelope containing the money in the taxi when he arrived home.

Mr Wimol said that after sending Mr Collinson, he picked up another passenger back to the airport and learned about the loss from officials. Then they checked inside his taxi and found the envelope under the left seat.

Mr Collison said he was glad and grateful for the discovery and the driver's honesty, and gave a reward to the taxi driver.

At 10.30pm on Friday, security officers at the airport arrested Pham Dang Vuong Tai, a 24-year-old Vietnamese student in Thailand, for allegedly stealing a Samsung Galaxy S4 mobile phone from a recharging service outlet. Surveillance camera footage showed the theft took place at 4.30am last Wednesday.

The man confessed to the crime and said he had done so twice to make ends meet. He said he also worked as a teacher at language tuition schools but earnings from the job were insufficient.