Brits Don't Bribe the Thai Police

[dirtydog]

July 1st the new UK Bribery Laws came into force, you giving into that Thai policeman and giving him that 200baht bribe for imagined driving offences could end up with you doing 10 years in jail.

From the FCO


The Bribery Act 2010 will come into force on 1 July 2011. It amends and reforms the UK criminal law and provides a modern legal framework to combat bribery in the UK and internationally.

The Bribery Act 2010, attracted strong cross party support in Parliament and received Royal Assent on 8 April 2010. Section 9 of the Act requires the Government to publish guidance on procedures that commercial organisations can put in place to prevent bribery on their behalf.

Foreign bribery has been illegal for many years, with a number of individuals and companies having been convicted under the current law.
The UK is contributing through the OECD Working Group on Bribery International Business Transactions and the UN Convention Against Corruption to increasing global awareness, enforcement and investigation of foreign bribery.

Regulation in practice: mode and scope

The Bribery Act creates the following offences:
Active bribery: promising or giving a financial or other advantage.
Passive bribery: agreeing to receive or accepting a financial or other advantage.
Bribery of foreign public officials.
The failure of commercial organisations to prevent bribery by an associated person (corporate offence).

Penalty
Under the current law imprisonment for up to seven years with unlimited fine will increase under the Bribery Act to a maximum of 10 years imprisonment.

Jurisdiction
The scope of the law is extra-territorial. Under the Bribery Act, a relevant person or company can be prosecuted for the above crimes if the crimes are committed abroad.

Application
The Bribery Act applies to UK citizens, residents and companies established under UK law. In addition, non-UK companies can be held liable for a failure to prevent bribery if they do business in the UK.

Liability
Companies can be liable for bribery committed for their benefit by their employees or other associated persons.

Culpability
A company or corporate entity is culpable for board-level complicity in bribery, including bribery through intermediaries. There is also personal liability for senior company officers that turn a blind eye to such board-level bribery.

In addition, a company or corporate entity is culpable for bribes given to a third party with the intention of obtaining or retaining business for the organisation or obtaining or retaining an advantage useful to the conduct of the business by their employees and associated persons, even if they had no knowledge of those actions. The company can invoke in its defence that it ‘had in place adequate procedures designed to prevent persons associated [with the company] from undertaking such conduct’.

[Stinky]

So dammed if we do and dammed if we don't, triffic.

[Satonic]

So far I reckon I owe about 1400 years at HMP then

[dirtydog]

This could of course be a sneaky way to imprison all the Thai people in the UK that are married to farangs and have a British passport etc, you know for sure every single one of them has been forced to pay the Thai police at one stage, lets hope the law is back dated and all these Thai criminals are locked up for 10 years for bribing the Thai police....

[dirtydog]

Infact if you are living in the UK it is time to lobby your local MP and seek arrests of anybody who holds or has held Thai nationality, these people need to be investigated for breaking the UK"s anti bribery laws, and then sent to jail for 10 years for their crimes, can't have these nasty criminals living in our lovely country.

[nigelandjan]

^ difficult time of the month ?

[dirtydog]

^Nope, just a ridiculous law that has been enacted.

[khmen]

Haha, twats! This was announced today:BBC News - Police 'plan to cut 14% of jobs by 2015'

There will be 34,000 fewer police jobs in England and Wales in March 2015 than in March 2010, research by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary suggests.
It estimated that the overall cut of 14% will include losing 16,200 officers and 16,100 civilian staff.
The HMIC added there was "relatively strong evidence" falling staff numbers might lead to a rise in some offences.
Home Office figures showed there are 139,110 officers in England and Wales - 4,625 fewer than March last year.
The annual decrease recorded by March this year was 3.2%. The number of police staff stood at 74,010, a decrease of 7% or 5,586 compared with a year earlier.

So, seeing as how there arent enough police to deal with crime in Britain itself the chances of them being present or investigating when you give Somjit his Lao Khao money for a driving offense are rather remote.

Unenforcable on a small scale tourist/expat level but this is obviously a law for bigger fish in business or people/drug/gun/counterfeit smuggling. It may be easier to prove someone bribed an official and arrest them for that initially, buying time to fully investigate them for other suspected offences..

[dirtydog]

Laws are supposed to be for all, not just the rich, I don't know of one Brit who hasn't had to bribe the Thai police for either real or imagined driving crimes, and I really doubt there is 1 Thai in the UK who hasn't had to bribe the Thai police or other officials, time the UK built bigger prisons, gonna be a few million people arrested.

[manpet]

Lets hope some smart arse B.I.B. doesnt read this ! 200baht bribe, in court for bribing , fined 500baht , conviction = big money or deported to Blighty & go to jail !! Delete dont educate,

[crippen]

Another after midnight thread from DD!

[Thormaturge]

The UK could potentially wind up imprisoning half the planet.

[Marmite the Dog]

So, a further strengthening of a law to ensure uncompetitiveness in foreign countries?

[Cujo]

Western governments don't get that that is how a lot of business is done in Asia, they won't change anything except exclude british companies from a lot of business.

[Boon Mee]

^
No worries. It'll continue to be business as usual only more second-party go-between companies will be routing the money. That's how Delta Airlines for one example can still sell their used planes to these low-cost airlines over here and avoid the Foreign Corrupt Policies Act.

[Professorfart]

I'd like to see them actually attempt to push through a conviction based on an action taken in a country where they have no jurisdiction.

Sounds more like a cash cow for defence lawyers than anything else.

[Sailing into trouble]

So DD how many Thai Policemen do you think are going to fess up and admit that you bribed them 8 quid to forget a speeding ticket.

Me thinks your secret is secure. Unless you are being monitored this very minute by special branch! If so since you have just made a confession, you maybe the first test case.

I would just like to add to anyone viewing this post, from afar, who is not involved in investigating hacking problems, I have never bribed a police officer of any nationality, and my Granny can vouch that I am a very nice Boy

[Thormaturge]

^

The difficulty in these situations though is in defending a malicious accusation, or even a series of accusations. I can see this ruining people financially as they pour money down the drain defending themselves.

[Professorfart]

The difficulty in these situations though is in defending a malicious accusation

Well if the OP is correct it will be a criminal accusation therefore defence is a right and the burden of proof very much on the Crown.

I can just imagine a stream of PC Somchais appearing in UK courts with their notebooks in hand...

[nigelandjan]

The difficulty in these situations though is in defending a malicious accusation, or even a series of accusation

That was exactly what first came into my head ,, some arsewipe who takes a dislike to you ,, specially with the lost in lingo scenario ">

[Agent_Smith]

I'd like to see them actually attempt to push through a conviction based on an action taken in a country where they have no jurisdiction.

American sentenced to nine years in prison under 'sex tourism' law for abusing girl in Cambodia - latimes.com

[Professorfart]

AS,

Totally different state of affairs.
There are agreements set in place between many countries to stop perverts preying on kids which permit such prosecutions and in most cases there would have been an existing conviction in the country in which the crime was committed.

[kingwilly]

Western governments don't get that that is how a lot of business is done in Asia, they won't change anything except exclude british companies from a lot of business.

Indeed.

[Cujo]

So how does this affect Murdoch, considering he bought scotland yard?

[Thormaturge]

^
The police can't arrest Murdoch just now since they are all busy arresting each-other.