Police officers led by Kamala Police Chief Pol Col Somsak Thongkliang, and joined by Kamala OrBorTor Deputy Chief Santad Khummit arrived and explained to the operator that no businesses may be operated on the sand at Laem Singh as the beach has been designated a ’protected area’.
The sunbed operator, whose name and nationality not included in official reports, was reportedly “arrested and prosecuted according to law”.
The sunbeds and umbrellas were ordered to be removed “immediately”.
According to official reports, the operator was ordered to pay a fine at the Kamala OrBorTor offices and was warned that if they continued to violate the law, they would be prosecuted for trespassing.
Laem Singh Beach was declared a ‘business-free’ beach in the ‘beach cleanup operation’ by the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) in 2014, just months after the coup of that year.
The ‘cleanup operation’ was to remove all illegal vendors from Phuket beaches and ‘re-organise’ beaches to prevent operators from occupying too much space, exclusively, even when paying local municipalities, on the sands at Phuket’s most popular tourist beaches.
However, Bangkok Broadcasting & TV Co Ltd (BBTV), the company that broadcasts Thai TV Channel 7, privatised access to Laem Singh Beach in July 2016 and started charging B100 per person to cross beachfront land that the company claims to own.
By April, 2017, BBTV closed off access across its land to Laem Singh Beach entirely, with the help of the Phuket Highways Office installing a barrier to prevent people from making their way to the beach.
The private company closing off access to Laem Singh Beach came with the support of Col Dusadee Arawuit, at that time Deputy Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Justice; and Lt Col Prawut Wongseenin, at that time Director of the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) Bureau of Consumer Protection and Environmental Crime; and from Col Santi Sakuntanark, at that time Commander of the Royal Thai Army 25th Infantry Regiment, based in Phuket.
Col Dusadee noted, “We have been informed of this situation several times and many officers have investigated this case. At this stage we will not release any details of our investigation, but we have already found officials involved in this issue have been transferred and some people have even died, namely [former Phuket Land Chief] Tawatchai Anukul”.
“Our investigation is continuing, we are checking the SorKor 1 and NorSor 3 land deeds, and satellite images of the area. Also, this case is still being heard in court. I want to the two parties to be at peace until the court reaches it decision,” he said.
Former Phuket land chief Tawatchai Anukul was found hanged in his cell at the DSI headquarters in Bangkok in 2016.
No further investigations into the land titles, upgrades and transfers he approved during his time as Chief of the Phuket Land Office, or during his tenure as Chief of the Thalang Land Office, were ever continued.