| |
Meatywsg
|
BAR MAT CONTROVERSY
Aussie confesses theft charge, freed on Bt1,000 fine
By Phuket Gazette
Phuket - Australian tourist Annice Smoel on Wednesday pleaded guilty to theft charges at Phuket Provincial Court and was released after paying a Bt1,000 fine Pol Maj Songserm Preecha of the Kathu Police told the Gazette on Wednesdday that the maximum sentence for the theft charge was one year imprisonment and a Bt2,000 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 her native country, 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.
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.
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2009/05/21/national/national_30103183.php
|
Thai Girls : Meet Sexy Thai Girls
Posted on: 1:04 am on May 21, 2009
|
|
DaffyDuck
|
Dumb, drunk Aussie chick starting a fight with the police officer.
Wow, now there's something you don't see every day.
|
Bangkok Women : Meet Sensual Bangkok Women
Posted on: 2:19 am on May 21, 2009
|
|
jingjo
|
Daffy has spoken, what you click on the link Meatywsg put up and get a HARD ON  iphone add
Well for those that were following this Silly Story The Australian Mother of Four is back Home with her Family now after Governor of Phuket Wichai Praisa-nob Payed the Thousand Bt fine.
There was another two girls that came forward and said they were in the same Bar a few weeks prior and there were undercover Police there trying to stand over them, for a Thousand Bt they left them alone.
|
Thai Girls : Meet Sexy Thai Girls
Posted on: 5:10 pm on May 21, 2009
|
|
S M E G M A
|
"The bar mat, measuring 145cm by 45 cm, was made of thick rubber."
She either is stupid to the extreme, or was taking some funny drugs (and then could also be arrested for that). I mean, how can you claim that you have a 145cm x 45 cm rubber mat inside your handbag without knowing it? BTW, it must be an amazingly huge handbag the one she had.
|
Bangkok Girls : Meet Sexy Bangkok Girls
Posted on: 6:49 pm on May 21, 2009
|
|
ThaidUp
|
You have kept up with the latest fashion in handbags. You can put a small TG inside of the ones the women are now toting around.
|
Thai Women : Meet Matured Thai Women
Posted on: 12:11 am on May 22, 2009
|
|
bkkz
|
Disneyland out for beer mat mum
BangkokPost
PHUKET : The woman who sparked an international incident when she stole a 2,000 baht beer mat from the Aussie Bar in Patong has now been banned from travelling to the US.
Australian mother of three Annice Smoel, 36, has been forced to cancel a planned trip to Disneyland after the US embassy in her home city of Melbourne refused her application for a visa, based on her conviction in Phuket last month.
Smoel was arrested and kept in a police cell for 48 hours after she was caught leaving the popular Aussie Bar in Soi Bangla with the 1.5-metre beer mat stuffed into her handbag.
When undercover police stopped her outside the bar, she tried to flee, and when she was eventually caught abused the arresting officers.
Smoel demanded to be taken to Kathu police station, where she continued to abuse police, including senior officers.
Smoel later claimed the theft was a "prank" and that her friends had put the beer mat into her handbag without her knowledge.
The story became front page news in Australia after Smoel's husband contacted a talkback radio station, claiming his wife was being kept in a Thai prison.
Australian media initially sympathised with Smoel's plight, but the tide turned against her when the full facts were finally revealed.
Smoel eventually admitted her crime, was convicted, given a six-month suspended sentence and fined 1,000 baht.
Phuket governor Wichai Praisa-nob personally paid the fine, publicly apologised to Smoel and told her she would be welcome to return to Thailand anytime she wished.
But as soon as she was safely home on Australian soil, Smoel started bad-mouthing Thailand, Phuket and the Thai people, doing irreparable damage to Phuket's tourism industry.
She sold her story to an Australian women's magazine for a reported 650,000 baht and said she planned to use the money to take her three daughters, Zhian, 12, Daisy, 11, and Lilly, six, on a dream trip to Disneyland in California.
But Smoel discovered this week that US authorities are not as forgiving as the Thais. Her application for a US tourist visa was refused on the basis that she is now officially listed on US databases as a convicted thief.
She has been forced to cancel the family's dream trip to Disneyland, and her daughters are reportedly "devastated". Smoel said she was told by US embassy officials that the ban on her entering the US would remain in force for as long as seven years.
"My girls will be all grown up by then," she said.
|
Bangkok Women : Meet Beautiful Thai Girls
Posted on: 11:43 pm on June 13, 2009
|
|
CalEden
|
BK, I do not know how true this report is. I believe Australians do not need a tourist visa to enter the US, it is automatic upon entry and they can remain in the country for six months.
|
Bangkok Girls : Meet Attractive Thai Girls
Posted on: 1:32 pm on June 14, 2009
|
|
DrLove
|
Yes, of course, if you meet all requirements of the VWP (Visa Waiver Program). One of these requirements is that you cannot have a criminal record.
Those using the VWP must register. So she cannot travel into the US without registering. And registration will reveal that she has a criminal record.
And those who are allowed on the VMP cannot stay in the US for 6 months, but rather 90 days. No extension possible.
|
Thai Girls : Meet Active Thai Girls
Posted on: 2:09 pm on June 14, 2009
|
|
| |
|
