THE RELUCTANT 17 jet-ski owners have now signed up to the insurance scheme, a meeting at Provincial Hall was told today.
PATONG'S Winai ''JJ'' Naiman has registered and insured the four jet-skis he owns, plus 24 others he manages, under the new system introduced by Phuket Governor Wichai Praisa-ngob.
But the man who sparked a review of the island's whole jet-ski business when he was depicted demanding money from British and US marines by the maker of a reality television series has yet to have his day in court.
Sources have told Phuketwan that Phuket's public prosecutors are still assessing evidence to support a charge that Mr Naiman demanded money with menace when he confronted the British marines, with a gun in hand.
Screening in Britain of the first episode in the series 'Big Trouble in Tourist Thailand' caused an uproar on Phuket, where for years accusations have been made that jet-ski scamsters have been shaking down tourists for large sums.
Tourists have often been forced to pay thousands of baht for preexisting ''damage'' to the jet-skis. Introduced by the governor after protests from several leading diplomats, the new registration and insurance scheme is designed to obliterate the scam.
However, there are still some quirks in the system. The governor was told at a meeting at Provincial Hall today that 204 jet-skis on the island have been registered and 185 of those have been insured. Others are damaged and not yet repaired or insured.
The owners of 17 jet-skis in Bang Tao, where 20 jet-skis are registered and insured and where there has never been scamming, are holding out.
They have declined to pay, even with a reduction in the insurance rate from the 9400 baht annual fee paid by the others, to 8600 baht.
Never having been involved in the scam, it appears this group of honest jet-ski hirers are reluctant to pay for the sins of others in Patong.
Another 36 ''black'' jet-skis are said to be operating illegally, outside the system and without registration or insurance.
Governor Wichai delegated police at today's meeting to first talk to the 17 Bang Tao jet-ski operators in the hope that they can be persuaded to join the insurance system. Then the ''black'' jet-ski owners will be targetted.
While the scams seem unlikely to reappear, the jet-ski associations are concerned at what will happen if an insured jet-ski happens to collide with an uninsured jet-ski.
Phuketwan has been told that the 'Big Trouble' series has been onsold to a leading free-to-air television network in Australia, where a screening of the JJ incident would be viewed by 20 times the audience of the initial cable tv showing in Britain.
More tourists visit Phuket from Australia than any other country.
The tv series, rightly or wrongly seen by some as damaging to Phuket's image, could be on-sold and screened in other countries . . . . perhaps even years after the problem has been solved.
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And once this is sorted out, please take care of the motorbike rentals. It is exactly the same like the Jet-skis, just less water involved ...
Posted by Fritz Pinguin on November 19, 2009 00:34