PHUKET: A Swedish man who shared a house with a katoey ladyboy is embroiled in a bitter dispute that has seen his passport seized and police called to press charges against him.

The katoey and the Swede shared the house in the central Phuket district of Kathu for six months until late last month, when the ladyboy - once a performer at Simon Cabaret in Patong - decided to go to visit her mother for a few days.

When the katoey returned from the Thai-Burma border province of Ranong to the Phuket house on December 3, she went to her bedroom and, she says, found many of her personal possessions missing.

Neighbors told her that she had arrived about 6pm but that the Swede had moved out with a large amount of luggage at 3pm.

The katoey went to police and told them that she had been robbed of about 150,000 baht in cash and jewellery.

Officers quickly traced the 27-year-old Swede, who comes from Tumba, to an apartment in Patak Road, southern Phuket, where they arrested him.

He was charged with theft. In a long interview with police this week, he told officers that he had been sharing a house with the katoey for six months.

''We were fighting all the time,'' he told police. ''There was no way I wanted to keep sharing a house on Phuket or anywhere with her.''

He said he was fed up with paying all the rent and all the bills while his katoey housemate paid nothing.

He also added that in one dispute she had taken his passport, and only handed it back after he paid her 30,000 baht.

As of late this week, the katoey was still claiming that she had been robbed of 150,000 baht and she wanted the money and jewellery back.

The Swedish man has been released without bail but police are holding his passport, and his visa expires on December 28. He has to report to police regularly.

Police are awaiting a decision from the Phuket Public Prosecutor as to whether they should pursue a case against the Swedish man.

The Swede, a frequent visitor to Thailand, maintains that there is no evidence that his former housemate ever had that amount of cash and jewellery in the house they once shared peacefully.