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Upmarket Expat Five Pull Off Phuket Drive-in Heists

By Chutima Sidasathian and Alan Morison
Friday, November 6, 2009
POLICE are questioning five expat men who pulled off an audatious series of thefts on Phuket before fleeing to Bangkok this week.

Phuketwan has learned that arrest warrants were issued from Phuket for the five today before the men were apprehended in Suirat Thani. The scheme worked like this:

The men hired five luxury cars on Phuket, then visited the underground carpark at the Central Festival shopping mall, where they stole the number plates from five other cars.

Having fitted the stolen plates, the men drove the cars to upmarket luxury villa estates, where the cars, all equipped with dark glass, were usually admitted without thorough security checks being made at the gates.

Often, it was simple for the men to talk their way through, the security guards presuming that the men in the cars were friends of owners.

At the villas, the men checked first to make sure nobody was at home, then pillaged as much as they could in luxury goods, opening safes where possible.

Victims of the robberies sounded the alert at Phuket police stations this week.

The theft of the number plates enabled police to trace the vehicles to a hotel in Surat Thani, where the five men stayed briefly before heading for Bangkok.

With one mobile phone number known, police were able to track the movements of the gang. The five men were arrested when they returned from Bangkok to Surat Thani early today.

Police are still amassing details of the hauls. It's suspected that, given the scale of the operation, fake passports are involved.

The nationalities and identities of the five men are expected to become known as police inquiries continue. Surat Thani police are leading the investigation.

Upmarket Expat Five Pull Off Phuket Drive-in Heists - Phuket Wan

__________________
i'd rather have a phlebotomy than a full frontal lobotomy

nedwalk

sounds like a good movie

English Noodles

What? Five low-lifes rent cars and swap number plates, burgle some houses and get arrested. Yeh, thrilling.

Spitfire

Ironically, when the crime involves the rich and snooty, the cops come up trumps in no time at all with a showering of expedient stimulus from conserned parties.

Chairman Mao

That's odd. Most crimes I read about are solved within the same time period no matter the social status of those involved.

Must be your patethic bitterness shining through. Don't fret, there are plenty of ye about.

Spitfire

You're funny man..........Anymore gob shite you want to post?

StrontiumDog

Sounds like these guys are total kunts.

Chairman Mao

...and morons.

Chairman Mao

Nope. Couldn't be bothered. Lot's of news threads on here. Nearly all are solved quite quickly.

Quickly thinking back over the last 2 weeks, there's the 2 girls who had their little honda jazz stolen, and the peasant garbageman who murdered his 40 yr old peasant bargirl. Culprits found within 2 days.

Kinda highlights your selective awareness.

klongmaster

He does have a point though...like the girls and the Jazz for example...being well-connected certainly helped in the police solving that case at speed...

Chairman Mao

And you know that how?

Working on the investigative police team were you?

Begbie

Making a donation speeds up the investigation, in my experience.

Dick Farang

Don Juan

Mafia?

withnallstoke

Wot a larf vat was. Me an me 4 bezzie mates 'cided fe rob the rich robbers oo ad got their cash already by robbin. Took em down bigtime when we pinched the remote control. Mad though innit? Police over 'ere dunna comprehend the ACAB tat on me bruised knuckles.

English Noodles

All Coppers Are Bastards. Never seen one of those tats for a while.

dirtydog

^You had yours removed?

Sdigit

Idiots more like

English Noodles

It came off in the shower, I only used a Biro.

Don Juan

Bunch of gangbangers, nothing more.

The kids round here do the same thing.