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Five men have been arrested by Phuket police and a sixth is wanted

Phuket Police Hold Five French Citizens After Bank Alert on ATMs

Tuesday, March 3, 2015
PHUKET: A group of five French citizens arrested for alleged ATM scamming included one man wanted in France, Phuket police said today in presenting the suspects.

The men have denied the accusations.

Wanted in France is Kevin Tahiango Theodore Okito, 29. Held with him after raids on houses in Chalong and Kamala late last month were Mel Duval Poaty, 29, Accel Jonathan Poaty Pambou, 26, Samir Manouf, 29, and Jessy Bianvenu Vincence, 33.

Acting on an alert from the SCB Bank, police investigated and confirmed that the men were behaving suspiciously.

In the houses raided by police, officers found 13 fake cards, a computer, a hard drive and 29 other cards.

With the men at left in the photograph is Winai Putta, 38, who was freed from jail on February 20 and rearrested on February 27 in a police sting.

When arrested at the Tesco Lotus car park in Phuket City, he had with him 4000 ya bah tablets and a kilo of ya ice in a Toyota Vigo.

Comments

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Great arrest, well done to SCB for picking up on the activity and to the BIB for a swift arrest.

French citizens in Phuket seem to be featuring on Phuketwan a lot this week.

Posted by Discover Thainess on March 3, 2015 15:07

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Ahh... these criminals look similar to many of the other French lunk-heads that fly around here on their big bikes disregarding all laws and public safety. No I see how they have the money to rent the biggest bikes available, rent jetskis all day every day, and prowl the streets of Patong all night. Let's hope that they set a major example out of these dirtbag criminals.

Posted by Ed Sanders on March 3, 2015 15:26

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I doubt whether this comment will bve published, but from the picture and their names the French "citizens" may have been in possession of French passports, but are hardly products of French culture.

Posted by Guenter Bellach on March 3, 2015 17:18

Editor Comment:

These days they are products of French culture, Guenter. Everybody with a French passport represents the country named in the passport. You may not choose fellow citizens any more than you can choose family. Plainly, French culture let them down somewhere along the line.

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Monsiers and french citizens Okito, Poaty, Pambou, Manouf, Vincence.

liberty-equality-fraternity

If they ever have heard about the ideals of the french revolution?

At least they can enjoy equality and fraternity now.

And hopefully a long absence of liberty.

Posted by Georg The Viking on March 3, 2015 20:13

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Mister Political Correct wrote:"Plainly, French culture let them down somewhere along the line." Hahahahahahahaaaa! You stupid idiot, this is exactly the "victim" mindset YOU and all other well meaning humanistic idiots are parading, thus giving the bastards free reign to go crazy all over Europe, and now Phuket! You have them in Australia too, and if you don't stop them, they will transform into ISIS terrorists later on. Brace for that, your PC nonsense won't save you.

Posted by BOM on March 4, 2015 13:07

Editor Comment:

Terrorists are made, not born. Living next to you, BOM, I can see why people might choose radicalism rather than tolerance. You certainly set a very poor example, yet you probably imagine you're a perfect citizen. How sad.

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As a French citizen, my first reaction was to dismiss them as French. They're a product of uncontrolled mass immigration. Unfortunately, i must recognize that they know represent French culture. That's why I and So many other expatriates with more traditional names live here.

Posted by willi on March 4, 2015 13:29

Editor Comment:

Run away, and whatever you run away from eventually catches up, willi.

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Fighting them means being accused of racism or xenophobia. What can we honestly do?

Posted by willi on March 4, 2015 13:36

Editor Comment:

Deal with the causes. Acceptance beats non-acceptance. If people are not made to feel welcome, their children will grow up feeling alienated.

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No wonder most west European countries are beginning to rebel against uncontrolled immigration. As you say, with French passports, they represent France ... but my condolences to the many good French people I have worked with, to be dragged down by these criminal imbeciles.

Posted by Logic on March 4, 2015 14:19

Editor Comment:

Perhaps the French are more sensitive but there is no sense that any individual is being ''dragged down'' by the actions of other individuals. Nationalism is both good and bad. A little bit is ok. Too much of it means you lose sight of other, more important values. If you think people think less of you because you too are the same nationality, then you probably have too much of it.

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willi,

they are product of events like Algerian war and other France colonialist expansionist endeavors, it's just pay back time on that now.

Posted by Sue on March 4, 2015 14:48

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At Ed: I like your response to my previous comment, especially about Nationalism. I have been in Thailand a very long time & now reside predominately in Nakhon Ratchasima (Korat). My adopted Thai family & friends go as a unit to every local 'Swat Cat' home match & I get a genuine kick out of the entire stadium regardless of race, religion or color, standing pre-match to face the scoreboard & sing the National Anthem. It is a very moving moment.

Posted by Logic on March 4, 2015 16:20


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