Another warning for residents
Two Dogs
order. Reminds me of that Scottish so-called engineer in Chiang Mai, tells
everyone he is some sort of Army Engineer, then gets a job to do off a
foreigner because they want to get the best job possible.
They end up ratshit, he ends up drunk and no one says anything....
Some weird people living here...
TD
http://www.bangkokpost.com/200501/200501_Perspective06.html
Lock, stock and two smoking boyz
BEWARE OF THE CHEATS: Take one wealthy businessman and a couple of
cooperative officials, add some drugs to his luggage, then move into his
office
Andrew Drummond in Pattaya; Pictures: Andrew Chant
To some businessmen and police in the frenetic resort of Pattaya,
38-year-old British entrepreneur Kevin Quill must have seemed a godsend when
he turned up with three quarter of a million pounds and time on his hands.
He spent his money lavishly buying a house with a pool, and two
condominiums, which he rented out, and a penthouse he lived in-and settled
down to life in the sun.
He had made his money in the entertainment business in the North of England
running clubs, bars and a small hotel. In Leeds city centre, a trendy
nightspot called "Cafe Junction" was his creation.
The times were good. He did not know then that his very wealth was the major
factor in a plot to set him up with drugs, if not for a Bangkwang Prison
firing squad-at least a stiff jail sentence followed by deportation and
blacklisting.
But that is exactly what happened to Mr Quill after he was lured into
business by two other local Britons Gordon May and James Lumsden, who run
one of the largest gay businesses in Asia. And this is a story which has
rung alarm bells in Britain's Foreign Office.
Now that the Thai government has started executing convicted drug
traffickers the possibilities of a tourist being set up with drugs, by
unscrupulous businessmen, is becoming more of a reality.
Six convicted drug traffickers were executed in March at Bangkwang Prison,
known internationally as "The Big Tiger" or "The Bangkok Hilton".
As Kevin Quill was leaving for a flight back home last year he provided an
ideal opportunity for those who wished to harm him. He ordered a massive
amount of duty free cigarettes-170 cartons of Benson & Hedges-to take back
with him.
Five minutes after leaving the "Ambiance Hotel" his car was stopped by
police. In one packet in one carton police found 100 amphetamine, or yaa
baa, tablets. It was just a short stop-over on the way to Chon Buri Prison
where he was jailed for six months pending trial.
Quill, however, is now out of prison on bail. His release follows written
representations to the court by the British Embassy and a meeting between
investigators, the British Consul Deryck Fisher and Major General Pongsan
Watcharoen, deputy commissioner of Chon Buri Provincial Police Region 2.
After his release, Maj-Gen Pongsan called Quill to see him with his lawyer.
"I believe your story. You are not a drug trafficker or a drug user. Don't
run away. Stay and fight the case. And Good luck."Our investigation had
shown alarming inconsistencies in Quill's arrest.
No other packets of cigarettes were opened, suggesting police knew
immediately where to look.
- The cigarettes were supplied to Quill by Gordon May and acquired from an
immigration policeman at Don Muang who delivered them with May the day
before Quill's departure. They were not from Cambodia as was claimed at a
press conference.
- The information to police came from within the Ambiance Hotel, owned by
May and Lumsden.
- The three arresting officers had earlier made a raid on Quill's hotel room
demanding to see bank books.
Uno sooner had Quill been sent to jail than Lumsden and May began stripping
his assets.
First went his luxury penthouse apartment, partitioned in two and rented out
to tourists. Then went his Mercedes. Finally went his company which owned
two bars and a mini-hotel.
Lumsden removed him as director and appointed May.
Last Wednesday night, Lumsden was arrested. Minutes earlier he had screamed
to his security men to evict Quill and a journalist from the club and hotel
Quill had bought.
"This business is mine. It's mine! I'm ordering you off," he shouted.
He was later charged with two counts of fraud and one of theft.
PILLARS OF THE GAY COMMUNITY
May, 59, and Lumsden, 49, both from Edinburgh, Scotland, pose as pillars of
the the local gay community. Lumsden, a transvestite, is the secretary of
the Pattaya Gay Festival.
They run the large "Boyz Boyz Boyz", a-go-go complex adjoining "Ambiance
Hotel" under a company called Bodisarn, and are regarded as something of the
King Pins in "Boyz Town", an area of Pattaya dominated by gay bars. Because
of their Scottish background some call them the "Gay MacMafia".
Though Quill went into a 50/50 partnership with the two Scotsman, it was his
money which went to pay 16-million-baht to purchase a bar complex from
Michael Burchall, the chairman of the Pattaya Gay Festival. And he spent
another seven million baht refurbishing it.
And when May suggested he pay out a further 200,000 baht to the local street
policeman Sergeant Major Vinai Yuyadmaak "to take care of all future
problems with police" Quill paid up too.
Even when the two Scotsmen suggested he put the Mercedes in their names
because he did not have a work permit. Quill hardly blinked.
And when Sgt Vinai came back for more cash-30,000 baht-for the funeral of
his wife, cash for a mobile phone, and a Gold Rolex, he dug into his pockets
again.
Such was his generosity that even Lumsden came to him for an interest-free
one million baht loan to buy a house.
"I think I must have left my brains behind in England," he now remarks.
But he did start worrying when he looked again at the structure of his
company which seemed to be overloaded with Thai friends of his Scottish
colleagues. So he called for a revamp. From that moment on, for reasons he
only began to understand while in prison, his new life took a turn for the
worse.
For some inexplicable reason he was beaten up by market traders in a Pattaya
street. Then in September last year his penthouse apartment was raided by
three police officers working for the Pattaya "Foreign Crime Reporting
Cooperation Centre" (FCRCC). The three policemen searched the premises
looking for bank books and financial documents, which are vital to prove his
investments in the Patika Company.
And along came Sgt Vinai again cap in hand suggesting, Quill claimed, 10,000
baht in his pocket could smooth things over. A by-now indignant Quill
refused. The gravy train had come to an end, he said, perhaps too
emphatically.
In October, his decision to take 170 cartons of cigarettes back to England
was by his own admission his stupidest mistake.
He ordered the cigarettes from May who turned up at the hotel with an
immigration policeman from Bangkok Airport and delivered them with a smile.
A day later in the police station lock-up along came Sgt Vinai again, this
time suggesting Quill should confess to the deed to get a lesser sentence.
His Scottish friends wrote sympathetic letters from their new marbled
business. But they were denying that there was any connection to Quill and
them when foreign press started calling.
"We know you were set up," wrote May. "Don't worry about the press
publicity. Jimmy has taken a few calls from newspapers but he has fucked
them all off."They promised to get him out and the money continued to flow
out of Quill's accounts. Some three million was handed to May and Lumsden
through Barry Kenyon, the British Embassy's local Corresponding Consul, to
pay for his legal bills. Only 1.7 million has been returned.
And the money from his club dried up too. At the height of the tourist
season profits were down nearly 50 percent on the low season.
TOO MANY COINCIDENCES
By this stage Quill could be forgiven for thinking there were a host of
coincidences. Officials at the British Embassy thought so too. They were
already alarmed at the circumstances of the arrest.
"This case could have been solved if the cigarette cartons were tested for
fingerprints," said one official.
Baroness Scotland, the British Foreign Office Minister responsible for all
Consular Sections worldwide, made a personal visit to Quill in Chon Buri
Prison. But when she asked the Thai Ministry of Justice why he could not get
bail she was told they could not take the risk that he would abscond.
Quill is not alone. Scores of foreigners lose their shirts every year in
Pattaya buying into houses and businesses. Most often it is foreigners
cheating foreigners, but often opportunistic local policemen are involved,
conceded Maj-Gen Pongsan, who ordered that enquiries be made into Quill's
case.
He confirmed that the tip informing on Quill came from within the "Ambiance
Hotel" owned by May and Lumsden, and that Sgt Vinai had admitted being a
source of Quill's generosity in the past. Witnesses claim Sgt Vinai has been
on the Lumsden "payroll" for seven years. Five nights a week he drinks at
Boyz Boyz Boyz.
Maj-Gen Pongsan is now convinced more than ever that Quill's arrest was not
the "triumph of police work" which is what Pol Col Pirom Piyakorn, head of
the FCRCC, described it to local newsmen.
Not only were no fingerprints taken to establish who had handled the
cigarettes, but the two people Quill had claimed had packed his bags had
left the province and could not be found, Pattaya Police told Maj-Gen
Pongsan.
This was strange because this writer was able to find one of them in Pattaya
within 24 hours. Laotian Chanthalath Posisenthong has confirmed May's
delivery of the cigarettes with an immigration policeman. (Quill was fined
600,000 baht on the cigarettes charge).
STRAIGHTENING THINGS OUT
Quill has taken his Thai experience as a salutary warning. At the moment he
is concentrating on getting his company back-the Patika Company is now in
the names of May, Lumsden and the manager of "Boyz Boyz Boyz" Yuthaporn
Pumalee.
Foreigners can only own 49 percent of any company in Thailand. They get
around this by creating several silent Thai partners who jointly hold 51
percent of the shares. Often the remaining shares are put in the names of
the lawyer or proxies nominated by the lawyer.
May and Lumsden took over the Patika Company by putting shares in the names
of their employees at "Boyz Boyz Boyz"
Quill is also free to prepare his defence against possession of
amphetamines.
Maj-Gen Pongsan has ordered that Quill be given full protection while
enquiries continue and witnesses continue to be brought to Chon Buri, not
Pattaya, for interview.
Said Quill this week: "I'm thankful to be out of jail and am in the process
of getting my life back in order and recovering my property.
"Everybody knows my attitude to drugs. If anybody was caught with drugs in
my clubs back home they were thrown out. I worked closely with the local
police and helped them install closed circuit television so they could
monitor any drugs activity."May and Lumsden declined to make a statement. As
this writer was making enquiries May left for the airport in a convoy of
three cars to catch a flight to Ontario.
As the funds of the Patika Company are mainly Quill's, lawyers are seeking
to freeze the Patika Company pending the outcome of a lawsuit.
Andrew Drummond is a foreign correspondent and investigative journalist
based in Bangkok.
Dangerous duo
Before coming to Thailand Gordon May was a director and James Lumsden was
the company secretary of Teague Homes Ltd, a local property company in
Edinburgh.
In 1987, after Lumsden and May had left Teague Homes, a paragraph in the
firm's annual report read: "During the period the directors discovered that
Mr G. May had misappropriated 243, 438 from the company fund in collusion
with one of the company's legal advisors and in contravention of the
Companies Act 1985."May was later charged by police with fraud but acquitted
at his trial.
At any rate the income from Teague Homes went into starting up the "biggest"
gay sex bar in Asia.
May and Lumsden also later featured in a report ordered by Sir William
Sutherland, the then Chief Constable of Lothian and Borders Police, to
investigate allegations that Scottish judges and advocates may have been
blackmailed into dropping major criminal cases because of homosexual links.
They made the news again when Scotsman Ian MacDonald, 28, a major investor
in "Boyz Boyz Boyz", died in a blaze which was confined to his room in the
Ambiance Hotel in April 1990.
Then in April 1996 Thaveepan Wuthisri, 21, a male a-go-go dancer employed by
Lumsden and May at "Boyz. Boyz. Boyz", was charged with murdering Swede Erik
Bohman.
Bohman, who lived in London, had arrived in Pattaya to invest in property
and gay nightclubs.
In that case the Pattaya Police said Thaveepan had been commissioned by
foreign businessmen, but he described them as Danes and Germans.
Davina Clampton (Miss)
<two...@myownemail.com> wrote:
>This little effort turned up last week.
I noticed it also. Interesting little piece. I loved the picture of
Lumsden.
Davina Clampton (Miss)
(Miss)) wrote:
>I loved the picture of Lumsden.
The plot thickens in the Pattaya Mail. The picture of Lumsden is a
great deal more flattering (....James Lumsden, adorned in a striking
light blue, sequined evening gown, as he appeared at a recent fund
raising event....). I had no idea he had such good legs.
BOYZTOWN BUZZES OVER "PINK BAHT" SCANDAL
Are May and Lumsden’s swords mightier than Quill’s pen is?
Boyztown, an enclave for a portion of Pattaya’s gay community, is all
aflutter over a scandal involving Gordon May, James Lumsden and their
soon to be former business partner Kevin Quill.
Gordon May and Jim Lumsden own the Ambiance Hotel and the Boyz Boyz
Boyz boys a-go-go. The two also co-own Throb and Splash, two other
boys a-go-goes with Kevin Quill. James Lumsden is currently the
secretary of the Pattaya Gay Festival.
It all began with Kevin Quill’s arrest last October for trying to
smuggle 170 cartons of Benson & Hedges cigarettes out of the country…
except he was nowhere near the airport. And the local police that
arrested him somehow found 100 tablets of amphetamines (ya ba) in one
of the packets of cigarettes. How the police came to find that one
pack out of the 3,400 packets he had, and why they didn’t bother
opening any of the other 3,399 packets remains a mystery.
Kevin Quill was incarcerated for this heinous crime, fined over
600,000 baht for the illegal cigarettes, and denied bail on the drugs
charge for fear he would take flight.
Quill remained locked up in Chonburi prison for a number of months,
during which time he had plenty of time to think. Maintaining his
relative innocence (he admitted to the cigarettes but denied knowledge
of the drugs), he set out to determine who could have, and would have
set him up and why.
The most obvious answer seemed to be that his business partners must
have had something to do with it. After all, they seemed to be the
ones that would gain the most if he were to “disappear” from the
scene. By his own admission, Quill had parted ways with somewhere in
the vicinity of £300,000, through business ventures with May and
Lumsden, an automobile, condominiums, a house and lavish spending. “I
think I must have left my brains behind in England,” he was quoted as
saying.
Spurred on by the British tabloid press, Quill began his accusations.
“Gay MacMafia stripped my assets and dumped me on death row” the
sub-head screamed.
Quill allegedly, “Lost £300,000, three homes and his Mercedes after
being lured into the sleazy empire of transvestite Jim Lumsden and his
partner Gordon May.”
Whether or not Quill’s accusations prove to be true, the byproduct of
the affair is that skeletons began creeping out of everyone’s closets.
In 1987, Teague Homes Ltd., a property company in Edinburgh, UK,
stated in their annual report that, “Mr. G. May had misappropriated
£243,438 from the company fund in collusion with one of the company’s
legal advisors…” Gordon May was a director in the company and James
Lumsden was the company secretary. Police later charged May with
fraud, but he was acquitted.
“Mr. May was found unanimously not guilty by the jury under direction
from the presiding judge, Lord Milligan, Senator of the College of
Justice,” Blairs Solicitors, Gordon May’s UK legal counsel, wrote to
the Pattaya Mail. “Because of the allegations… Mr. May successfully
sued his accusers… and received a substantial out of court
settlement.”
May and Lumsden also later featured in a report ordered by Sir William
Sutherland, at the time the Chief Constable of Lothian and Borders
Police, to investigate allegations that Scottish judges and advocates
may have been blackmailed into dropping major criminal cases because
of homosexual links.
They made the news again when Scotsman Ian MacDonald, 28, a major
investor in ‘Boyz Boyz Boyz’, died in a blaze which was confined to
his room in the Ambiance Hotel in April 1990.
Then in April 1996, Thaveepan Wuthisri, 21, a male a-go-go dancer
employed by Lumsden and May at ‘Boyz Boyz Boyz’ was charged with
murdering Swede Erik Bohman, who lived in London and had arrived in
Pattaya to invest in property and gay nightclubs. In that case the
Pattaya police said Wuthisri had been commissioned by foreign
businessmen, but he described them as Danes and Germans.
Sergeant Major Vinai Yuyadmaak, a local “street cop” who “drinks 5
nights a week in Boyz Boyz Boyz,” also features in the saga. Quill
claims he paid out £3,500 to Vinai, “to take care of all future
problems with police”.
Quill also says he gave Vinai, “£500 for the funeral of his wife, cash
for a mobile phone and a gold Rolex,” and that Vinai had approached
him for “an interest free loan of £15,000 to buy a house”.
Quill said, “There came a time when I stopped paying,” and that, “It
was then that the relationship with Lumsden, May and the local police
soured.”
In an exclusive for Pattaya Mail, Gordon May, who may have left just a
tad early on his annual pilgrimage from Pattaya to Canada, and James
Lumsden responded to some of the accusations, and bandied about a few
of their own.
“Kevin’s relationship with us only ‘soured’ after his arrest and we
were unable to secure bail for him,” Gordon May told Pattaya Mail.
And, “There is no Gay MacMafia; this is a figment of a sick man’s
imagination.”
May also denied stripping Quill’s assets. “Kevin has never lost
anything regarding his three homes, one house and two condos. The two
condos are in Kevin’s own name and to my knowledge still are. The
house is in his own company called the Sipsari Co and I don’t have any
authority over that company. None of Kevin’s assets were touched; this
can be confirmed by his and our lawyers. Kevin has also received his
share of the profits from the company on a monthly basis as normal.”
As for the Mercedes, Gordon said, “It was at Kevin’s request that the
vehicle was put into Jim’s name as Kevin could not get financing for
it and he did not want to pay cash.”
Lumsden says the paperwork is now complete and the car has been handed
over to Quill.
Quill says that he asked May to provide him with the cigarettes, and
that May delivered 170 cartons to his apartment shortly before he
(Quill) left for the airport. May denies this as well. “I was asked
but never provided a cache of cigarettes for Kevin. He and he alone
bought, had them delivered and took them to his room himself. I never
at any time handled these cigarettes and they were not delivered
shortly before Kevin’s departure, they were delivered and were in his
room a week prior to his departure.”
Regarding their “checkered past”, May replied, “We did not leave a
checkered past behind us when we left Edinburgh… There was a report
that was in fact ordered by Prime Minister John Majors after wildly
exaggerated tabloid newspaper reports (were published) concerning 12
gay cases, all of which failed when they reached court. The enquiry,
which was conducted by Lord Nimmo Smith, concluded there was no
blackmailing and no gay conspiracy… This report is a matter of public
record in Scotland… neither Jim’s nor my name is mentioned anywhere in
the report.”
May and Lumsden told Pattaya Mail that it is Quill who has the
checkered past. “Kevin frequently boasted that the UK police tried to
charge him at one time with attempted murder. The charge was never
laid… When Kevin left the UK he re-mortgaged his house and took out
several loans for between 7 and 10 thousand (pounds) each, then came
to Thailand with about 20 UK credit cards, purposely ran them all up
to the limit and then, having no intention of paying anything…
instructed his lawyers in the UK to declare him bankrupt… and it is
understood that there is an ongoing fraud investigation into this at
the moment. The total amount defrauded from these companies is in the
region of 300,000 pounds sterling; strange that’s about the total
amount of money he has claimed to have invested in Thailand.”
There is also the matter of May and Lumsden having removed Quill as
director of their joint company. May told Pattaya Mail that Quill was
removed as director because of his arrest, and that it was “bad for
their image”. He also said that Quill knew about this and accepted it.
May went on to say that Quill has not been reinstated as director due
to the current legal proceedings, but he reiterated that Quill is
still 50% owner of the company and that he is still receiving monthly
profits as normal.
May also told Pattaya Mail that he has offered to buy out Quill for 7
million baht (about £107,700), that the contract is ready and all
Quill needs to do is show up and sign the documents and the money is
his.
Just before going to press, Pattaya Mail learned that James Lumsden
has begun proceedings to sue Kevin Quill for slander (a civil suit)
and filing a false police report (a criminal offence) against him
(Lumsden). The police report Quill filed against Lumsden, which
resulted in Lumsden being brought in by police for questioning,
accused Lumsden of stealing from Quill, destroying company documents,
and embezzling, charges Lumsden denies.
Quill told police that upon his release from jail, he went to the
Ambiance Hotel to retrieve his belongings (a mobile phone and computer
discs containing company records), but that “Jim wouldn’t give them
back… he had destroyed them”. He also reported to police that Lumsden
had stolen 600,000 baht from him.
After bringing in Lumsden for questioning, police concluded that it
was a “business conflict”, and then asked Quill to bring in witnesses
to collaborate his claims. They said that once Quill brought in proof,
police would bring Lumsden in again, something that as of press time
had not yet happened.
Lumsden’s lawyer told Pattaya Mail that Kevin Quill has broken the
penal code, section 172, section 174 paragraph 2, and sections 90 and
91, which now makes this a criminal case against Kevin Quill.
The preliminary hearing is set for August 2.
http://www.pattayamail.com/408/news.htm#hd2
Cheap Charlie
poofs.
What is it about Pattaya that attracts stupid people with money? Remember
the
Beach 1 pizzeria owners who lost the equivalent of 35.000 USD to Nigerian
con-men who walked into their shop one day and fed them a preposterous line
of
bull? I have half a mind to go down there myself and try and win the
lottery.
Anyone as stupid as these guys deserves to lose their money.
-CC
Davina Clampton (Miss)
<Chia...@MailAndNews.com> wrote:
>Don't know if the link will work but the Mail has pictures of all three
>poofs.
This is always something that confuses me. Should it not be pooves?
Nigel Evans
(Miss)" <dav...@nirvana.com> writes
No, it is derived from the French word "pouffe" meaning "puff".
According to my dictionary, "poof" is a derogatory slang word for a
male homosexual. The next entry in my book of words is "poofter". This
is a man who is considered effeminate or homosexual. Also, in New
Zealand, it means someone who is contemptible. The previous entry is
fascinating. What's a "poodle-faker" ? It's a young man or commissioned
officer who likes to socialise with young women.
I like the dictionary. It has a very poor story but it does explain the
meanings of the big words as one reads it.
Sadly, I am too old to be a "poodle-faker".
--
Nigel Evans