A Singaporean man who was accompanying a Taiwanese actress when her group was allegedly extorted for 27,000 baht by police in Bangkok, claims the officers told him to pay the bribe or spend two days in jail for having vaping devices he had purchased in the city.
The 29-year-old man, who identified himself only as "Sky", appeared yesterday before reporters at the Davis Bangkok Hotel, owned by former politician and massage parlour tycoon Chuvit Kamolvisit. He was invited by Mr Chuvit to visit Thailand for the press conference.
Speaking mostly in Thai, Mr Sky said: "If I didn't trust Mr Chuvit, I would not have come here."
He 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.
Afterwards, they took a Grab taxi to head for the Huai Khwang area. At a police checkpoint in front of the Chinese embassy, he said police stopped their taxi and asked for their passports. The man told them he did not have his passport on him at the time.
Police reportedly ordered them to get out of the cab and take off their shoes. Then police discovered his vaping devices, and the group was told they would have to go to a police station.
The Singaporean said he had three such devices, but the Taiwanese actress had none. Officers then seized the items and uniformed policemen demanded they hand over some money in exchange for being spared from charges related to the vaping devices, which are illegal in Thailand, and failure to show a valid visa. The Singaporean said he had a visa on arrival, which was valid.
Police told them they would be jailed for two days unless they paid 8,000 baht per vape plus 3,000 baht for failing to carry a passport. The total amounted to 27,000 baht.
He then asked the officers why vapes were illegal because they were widely available across Thailand. He said he purchased them at a market in Huai Khwang without knowing they were illegal.
"I was very stressed and wanted to get away as quickly as I could. I was afraid of the police and imprisonment. I had 30,000 baht with me, and they took 27,000 baht," Sky said.
"The money was collected by a police officer with a moustache who did not wear a uniform but wore a jacket. A large bald-headed officer blocked the CCTV camera and a thinner officer whose face was partly covered joined in to listen to our conversation," he added.
The officers did not allow them to use their phones and kept threatening to take them to a police station, Sky claimed. He said he remembered the faces of the officers.