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» 21.05.09 Austrailian tourist pays 1,000 baht fine for Phuket bar mat theft |
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21.05.09 Austrailian tourist pays 1,000 baht fine for Phuket bar mat theft
Source: Phuketgazette
Australian
tourist Annice Smoel at Phuket Immigration offices after pleading
guilty to stealing a bar mat from the Aussie Bar in Patong and paying a
1,000-baht fine.
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The 'bar mat' from the Aussie bar in Patong that started the whole controversy was 145cm by 45 cm and made of thick rubber.
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PHUKET
CITY: Australian tourist Annice Smoel pleaded guilty on Wednesday to
stealing a bar mat from the Aussie Bar in Patong and paid a 1,000-baht
fine (approx US$ 28.00) before leaving Phuket.
Pol Maj Songserm Preecha of the Kathu Police, which operates in Patong, told the Gazette
that the maximum sentence for the theft charge was one year
imprisonment and a 2,000-baht fine, but Phuket Provincial Court halved
both the prison sentence and fine based on her confession.
The court then suspended the prison sentence because Ms Smoel has no previous criminal record in Thailand.
Ms Smoel’s case has made major headlines in Australia, which is a prime source of tourists to Phuket at this time of year.
She
was arrested and detained for two nights in a cell at Kathu Police
Station after police caught her with a stolen beer mat (aka 'bar mat')
from the Aussie Bar on Soi Bangla in Patong.
The bar mat, measuring 145cm by 45 cm, was made of thick rubber and can be bought from the Aussie Bar as a souvenir.
The
Australian mother or four initially denied the charges, saying friends
had put the item in her handbag without her knowledge as a prank.
Kathu
Police forwarded the case to the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office and
seized her passport, preventing her from leaving Thailand to go home to
her children.
The non-stop, worldwide
publicity surrounding the case – and its possible impact on tourism –
apparently made the court expedite the case.
A Thai person facing the same charge would typically have to wait weeks or months for a court hearing.
Maj
Songserm also denied that Ms Smoel spent four nights in prison, as has
been widely reported. She spent two nights in prison and was released
after 48 hours, the maximum allowable under the law, he said.
Ms
Smoel was in an angry mood and quarreled with staff at the Aussie Bar.
She was arrested by uniformed officers after staff at the bar reported
the theft, not by “undercover police” inside the bar as previously
reported in major media around the world, he said.
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