British national Dylan Taylor, 35, was arrested in Chon Buri province after British authorities brought him to Thai Immigration’s attention, a press conference in Bangkok was told yesterday (Oct 28).
Taylor was wanted on arrest warrant in England after he failed to present himself in court to hear sentencing for ram raiding a shop in Devon, southwest England, in the hope of robbing an ATM.
Taylor was sentenced last year to seven-and-a-half years in jail after crashing a Mitsubishi Shogun into a Trago Mills store at a shopping complex in the town of Newton Abbot and trying to steal an ATM machine.
He caused £100,000 (about B3.88 million) in damage and the store lost £40,000 (B1.55mn) in revenue while it was closed for repairs, reported news website Devon Online.
Taylor, of Torquay, was part of a gang which used the car to crash through the front door of the shop in the early hours of the morning. Taylor had bought the car the previous day for £895 (B34,700).
Once inside the store Taylor and the gang attached a rope to the free standing machine and tried to pull it from its base. They failed and left empty handed. Blood and DNA on the machine matched Taylor’s, reported Devon Online.
But Taylor, 33, failed to show up to hear the verdict against him at Exeter Crown Court and was sentenced in his absence.
It was said he had told friends he needed time to “sort himself out”. The prosecutor said he may have fled to Thailand. (see Devon Online report here.)
Taylor’s arrest came after British authorities had informed Immigration officers that a suspect wanted for ram raiding was staying in Chon Buri.
Taylor’s permit to stay in Thailand had been revoked and he will be handed over to British authorities to face charges in England, the press conference in Bangkok yesterday was told.
Meanwhile, 43-year-old Australian Luke Anderson was arrested in Pattaya last Thursday (Oct 24), Immigration Bureau’s Division 3 Commander Pol Maj Gen Archayon Kraithong told the same press conference yesterday.
The arrest came after Thai Immigration officers met with Australian authorities on the problem of outlaw motorbike gang members hiding in Thailand, he added.
Anderson is wanted on drug charges in Western Australia, and is likely to be wanted on a slew of more charges as he had been arrested 21 times before on charges involving illegal possession firearms and drugs, Maj Gen Archayon said. (See Immigration Bureau report here.)
An officer also confirmed that Anderson had been involved in a violent assault on two Thai brothers in Pattaya in September 2016, along with two other Australian motorbike gang members, noted a report by Associated Press. (See story here.)
“Several years ago, he committed a crime by assaulting a Thai national,” said Maj Gen Archayon.
He said Anderson is also suspected of “involvement in illegal trafficking of drugs and weapons, using Thailand as a meeting place, as a base to arrange activities in Australia. We consider him a dangerous person,” he added.
Anderson’s permit to stay in Thailand has been revoked and he will be deported, Gen Archayon added.
The Australian head of the Hell’s Angels in Pattaya, Wayne Schneider, was bludgeoned to death in 2015 and buried in a shallow grave, in what was thought to be a drug-related dispute.
Fellow Australian Antonio Bagnato was convicted of his murder and sentenced to death, but the sentence was commuted. (See ABC report here.)
At the same press conference yesterday, it was reported that a 41-year-old woman named by officers only as “Ms Isara” had been arrested for producing fake passports and fake immigration stamps.
Her arrest came after officers found her in possession of 10 Myanmar passports, six of which had fake immigration stamps from the Nakhon Sawan Immigration Office and the remaining four had fake immigration stamps from the Rayong Immigration Office, the Immigration Bureau said in a release.
Ms Isara was arrested during a search of her house in Samut Prakan executed under a search warrant issued on Oct 22.
She now faces charges of producing fake passports and fake officials stamps for use presumed for sale.
Ms Isara is to be prosecuted accordingly, said the release.