A team of officers from Bangkok’s Crime Suppression Division, Marine Police, Tourism Police, Immigration Division, and Pattaya Police Station question jet ski vendors along Pattaya Beach. Jet ski vendors were put on notice they are being watched after police rounded up and collected information on nearly six dozen Pattaya Beach operators accused of perpetrating extortion scams against tourists.
Jet ski vendors were put on notice they are being watched after police rounded up and collected information on nearly six dozen Pattaya Beach operators accused of perpetrating extortion scams against tourists.
The team of officers from Bangkok’s Crime Suppression Division, Marine Police, Tourism Police, Immigration Division, and Pattaya Police Station fanned out across the beachfront Sept. 11, days after the Indian embassy issued a warning to its nationals against renting jet skis in Pattaya. They were joined by Banglamung District and Pattaya city officials.
A team of officers from Bangkok’s Crime Suppression Division, Marine Police, Tourism Police, Immigration Division, and Pattaya Police Station question jet ski vendors along Pattaya Beach. Jet ski vendors were put on notice they are being watched after police rounded up and collected information on nearly six dozen Pattaya Beach operators accused of perpetrating extortion scams against tourists.
The embassy noted that Pattaya has been plagued for years by vendors who intimidate and extortion huge sums of money out of unsuspecting tourists for contrived damage to jet skis.
“We have been given orders to perform regular inspections on all jet skis in Thailand and also to collect profiles of all jet ski vendors as well as the police involved,” said Pol. Maj. Gen. Akaradech Pimonsri, director of the CSD.
He apparently was referring to long-running complaints that Pattaya police were aiding the extortionists in negotiating a “settlement” of which they would take a cut.
“If any police or vendors are reported extorting tourists, legal prosecutions will take place immediately with no exceptions,” he said.
Police interviewed 58 operators of 127 jet skis, finding eight illegal aliens and three unregistered watercraft. No scam-related arrests were made despite a report by Thai media that police witnessed first-hand two vendors taking 4,000 baht from an Italian tourist.
A major Thai newspaper reported that 30 of the 58 vendors were placed on a “watch list” for criminal behavior.
At a meeting following the inspection, Akaradech said that authorities must wipe out all jet ski vendors who are extorting tourists. Corruption and scams must be tackled in order to secure tourists that Thailand is still safe and pleasant to visit.
New measures will be implemented, not just in Pattaya, but all over Thailand, to arrest and prosecute extorters without excuse, he pledged.
