On the face of it, Paul Joyce appears little different from other foreigners who settle down in Thailand. He fell in love with the country, married a Thai woman and started a family here with one young child.
The only difference is that the 41-year-old native of Consett, England, is a fugitive who allegedly masterminded a £2-million (64 million baht) cigarette-smuggling ring back home in 2008.
Mr Joyce is wanted in Britain for evading excise taxes and is believed to have fled to Thailand soon after 10 alleged accomplices were caught by UK customs officials in 2008, smuggling 10 million black-market cigarettes into the country.
The Newcastle Magistrates Court issued a warrant for his arrest on March 26, 2010. But it wasn't until early this year that English authorities confirmed he was in Thailand and the British embassy asked Thai police to help track him down so he could be sent home under the British-Thai extradition agreement.
Police were asked to find Mr Joyce on March 5 and among the first clues given was the man was last known to have lived in Moo 5 tambon Nong Prue in Chon Buri's Bang Lamung district.
The mission of looking for him fell to Somkiat Kaeowiset, superintendent 1 of Special Branch Division 2. He did not expect it would be difficult to find Mr Joyce as he did not seem like a big criminal who would be skilled at avoiding detection.
Pol Col Somkiat assigned two experienced investigators – police inspector Pol Lt Col Bunsanong Baotun and his deputy Pol Sub-Lt Watcharaphong Sirinwong of the Special Branch Division 2 – to the job. But it wasn't going to be so easy.
They quickly found Mr Joyce's address, as provided by the British embassy, was useless as he had already moved out of Bang Lamung district. Police found he tended to change his address frequently. He does have some evasion skills after all.
According to the investigation, Mr Joyce often went in and out of the country. In November last year, he travelled from Cambodia to Chanthaburi where he told authorities at the Ban Phakkat border checkpoint he would stay at a hotel on Sukhumvit Road in Bangkok. When police went there, he had again already left the hotel.
Investigators showed Mr Joyce's photo about town. Eventually a police informant told the team Mr Joyce had been spotted in Kanchanaburi. Pol Lt Col Bunsanong and Pol Sub-Lt Watcharaphong travelled to this western province and began their search. One week passed without progress. Investigators found no clues of Mr Joyce, and could not track him via his phone.
Two weeks later the team learned the suspect had gone to the resort district of Hua Hin in Prachuap Khiri Khan.
There, officers went from place to place showing people his photo. After three days, a motorcycle rental shop owner said he had spotted a man similar to the one in the photo.
The man did not give his name, but he had a foreigner rent a motorcycle for him. The team found his friend and after interrogating him, officers were confident they were closing in on Mr Joyce though the friend did not know where he was living.
The team wanted to make sure they would not miss their suspect again, and on April 21 posted special branch police in various spots in Hua Hin district. One officer spotted Mr Joyce and a team moved in to arrest him without incident.
Pol Lt Col Bunsanong said the arrest was not as easy as first thought because Mr Joyce left few traces of his whereabouts.
Mr Joyce will be extradited to stand trial in Britain on tax evasion charges. If found guilty, he faces up to seven years in prison.
Contact Crime Track: crimetrack@bangkokpost.co.th