Mayor Itthipol talks to Pol. Lt. Col Weerawut
Meelai
about the problem of jet ski scams.
Pratchaya Kerdthong
and Bob James
After months of non-stop complaints about purported
rip-offs, Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome personally warned Pattaya Beach jet
ski vendors their “cards have been marked” and finally moved to write
new laws to regulate their operation.
Making a surprise, plainclothes visit to Pattaya
Beach last week, Itthiphol intercepted a number of the jet ski operators
allegedly scamming tourists out of hundreds of thousands of baht weekly
for non-existent damage to the water craft and served notice he’d had
enough.
“I know your game and your cards have been marked,”
Itthiphol, writing on his online Facebook page, said he told the jet ski
vendors.
Mayor Itthipol makes a firsthand inspection of the jet ski activities on
the beach.
“I can tell you that they did get a bit of a shock as
normally when we go out there is a large group and they can see us
coming. But I just turned up in my (regular) clothes and asked them,
‘Why are you causing so many problems? What makes you think you can
behave in this way? It’s not Thai and it’s not good,’” Itthiphol wrote.
Then, before jetting off to a large German travel
fair, Itthiphol ordered Deputy Mayor Ronakit Ekasingh to assemble marine
police, water sports business owners and others to debut proposed
regulations aimed at reigning in the jet ski and related operators.
The rules call for establishment of a commission that
will determine costs for jet ski damage and service disputes with other
boat operators, city registration of all vendors, and the opening of
24-hour “tourist service centers” where disputes can be settled.
Itthiphol’s intent is to keep police out of the
disputes, as both national and tourist police officers have been caught
on video and in photos helping jet ski vendors extort as much as 300,000
baht a week, according to several witnesses.
“(There will be) more to come next week as we have
more investigations and implement our plan for keeping police out of any
negotiations,” Itthiphol assured readers to his Facebook page.
Itthiphol took pains to make clear, however, that he
believes only a few corrupt officers are involved.
At the March 11 meeting, Ronakit said if the city
finds a damage settlement has been made without the commission’s
involvement it will be considered a “serious infringement” that can lead
to cancellation of vendor’s license, banishment from the waterfront or
jail time.
The regulations, however, must first be approved by
Banglamung District and Chonburi Province.
Itthiphol has been inundated with complaints from
non-Thais about the jet ski problem since a Pattaya Mail special
correspondent posted videos and links to reports of the scams to his
Facebook page earlier this year.
Since then, dozens of new reports, photos and movies
have been added, all showing the same thing: Jet ski vendors are
systematically targeting mostly non-Western tourists, demanding tens of
thousands of baht by falsely claiming they damaged the boats. And,
photos show, they are getting a handful of corrupt police officers and
non-Thai “interpreters” to help them.
The outcry has since spread from the social
networking website to independent blogs and even newspaper reports in
England, Australia and Europe.
Rather than rely on police, Itthiphol has recruited
help online, encouraging people to send him photos, videos, news stories
and first-hand reports about scams and who is involved. Among those
identified assisting the scams are a tailor near Walking Street and
officers from the Pattaya Police Station and Tourist Police.
“I (have) met with the police and asked them to move
quickly on the video evidence and look for ways to cause these people
problems if they want to operate like this,” Itthiphol wrote online.
“You may have reservations about the police but there are some good ones
and I know who they are. I informed them this is causing both the City
and me a bad name.”
Not delegating the Facebook page to assistants,
Itthiphol responds personally to comments about jet skis and other
matters at Facebook.com/PattayaFuture.
During a recent escapade, Pattaya Mail reporters, whilst trying to
gather information, was obstructed by volunteers, much to the
astonishment of witnesses, both tourists and Thais. With the situation
well out of hand, Mayor Itthiphol Kunplome has pushed the issue to the
top of his agenda.
