A Pattaya club where more than 100 underage teens were found drinking has become the first bar in Thailand to be shut down for five years under a new National Council for Peace and Order directive.
Banglamung raided Face Club, on a small soi off Central Road in central Pattaya, early July 30, finding 120 customers, only six of whom were over the legal drinking age of 20. Five boys and girls were under age 15.
Police also seized 37 untaxed whiskey bottles.
Police rounded up 114 underage drinkers top take to the Soi 9 police station, but many escaped in the confusion.
Owners Tawatchai Somchit, 31, and Taksin Phusri, 37, were both arrested, along with manager Saksri Panipakpanit.
Pattaya police attempted to haul the 114 teenagers to the Soi 9 police station, calling five baht buses to bring them there. But as they waited for the baht buses to arrive, the teenagers all broke in separate directions. Officers managed only to corral a handful to bring in.
Face Club, which played upon Facebook as a theme, was served with a five-year closure order, the penalty set out in an NCPO order under Section 44 of the interim constitution last month for entertainment venues found serving underage customers or operating beyond legal operating times.
