A FAMILY from Finland left Phuket taxi drivers disappointed when they failed to turn up as promised for an ID parade this evening to find a thief. Taxi drivers had gathered in numbers to take part in the effort to prove or disprove whether a driver from the Central Festival taxi rank had been guilty of driving off with the family's expensive electronic equipment in a bag on Wednesday evening. The Finns had undertaken to be a part of the process, but failed to attend at 6pm at Central Festival.


CENTRAL FESTIVAL is prepared to organise an identification parade of all its 180 Phuket taxi drivers to clear them of allegations of theft.

A family of Finns reported to Phuket police that a taxi took off on Tuesday with a bag containing some cash and expensive electronic devices.

Last year a Central Festival driver was rewarded for his honesty and the shopping mall management is aghast at the implication that one of their team might be a thief.

Pom U-tensean, head of the Central drivers, told Phuketwan today: ''We are keen to let the tourists come and look at all our drivers. We will help the police in any way we can.''

He said security camera footage had been reviewed. It showed Finn Lauri Kukkonen, 61, his wife Tanja and daughter Sini, 17, getting into a taxi at the road's edge, not on Festival turf.

The image was not clear enough to identify the taxi.

In seeking to solve a case that could affect Phuket tourism, Colonel Boonlert On-klang went to the Finn's holiday resort in Karon today but the family was out.

Colonel Boonlert made arrangements to get in touch with them tomorrow.

The family went to Chalong police yesterday and told police how the taxi driver had taken off from outside the Island View Resort before they'd had a chance to remove the bag.

Last year another Phuket resort rewarded a Central Festival driver for his honesty in returning a wallet found on the ground outside the shopping mall.