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Phuket's Scamdinavians ''holidayed'' at the Phuket Immigration Resort

Phuket Scamdinavians: Tourists Rip Off a Holiday

Tuesday, January 12, 2010
A DESTITUTE Swedish couple who were picked up on the streets of Phuket before Christmas are still in custody in Thailand, awaiting repatriation.

Phuketwan thought that Bjorn Lennart Lundqvist, 59, and Gabriella Rose-Marie Strand, 58, were simply down on their luck when they were eventually arrested on Phuket, having become unable to pay for accommodation, food or other needs.

But it turns out they are 'Scamdinavians.' An official from the Swedish embassy made clear yesterday that the couple are simply, without wishing to be unkind to them, international freeloaders.

''This is the fourth time Mr Lundquist has done this, and it's the third time for Ms Strand,'' said the official, who preferred to remain anonymous.

He was planning to visit the Immigration detention centre in Bangkok yesterday to check on the condition of the much-travelled couple.

It's a kind of extreme tourism that we hadn't encountered before, hence our sympathetic report earlier that the couple might need a benefactor to get home to Sweden for Christmas.

The reality is a little different, we learned yesterday when we checked with the embassy to see how the couple were faring.

''They have been doing this every year lately, sometimes twice a year,'' the Swedish embassy official said. ''We have perhaps 65 to 70 Swedes a year who find themselves in this situation.

''Other countries encounter similar problems.''

While the Thai government is footing the bill for their incarceration at the detention centre, Mr Lundquist and Ms Strand will eventually pay their own airfare home . . . once their Swedish pensions have reached the point where they cover the cost of the airfare.

However, in their wake they leave Swedish expats who reside on Phuket, who helped the couple, and who now wonder how this mischief can be allowed to happen time and time again.

''It's bad for the reputation of good Swedes here, and honest Swedish visitors,'' one expat told us.

The travel tricks of the sympathy-seeking pair are frowned upon by Swedish and Thai authorities who expend time and energy on the couple's unusual regular ''holiday'' in Thailand.

It is believed they will depart leaving bills unpaid on Phuket. Their substantial overstay fines from expired visas also are understood to go unpaid.
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Comments

Comments have been disabled for this article.

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Once they are back in Sweden take away their passports!!

Posted by another steve on January 12, 2010 08:00

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The Swedish Authorities should take their passports and ban them from ever having one.

Totally despicable

Posted by Tbs on January 12, 2010 13:20

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Leeches like these people should rot, it is stealing. The Swedish authorities are also to blame for this.

Posted by Graham on January 12, 2010 16:51

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This an example of how the overcaring welfare state is destroying people's morals and behaviour. Will Thailand be a welfare state someday, NO WAY!

Posted by Samlee on January 13, 2010 23:59

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Give them a free ticket to Bangkok-Hilton! We don't want them back home! Swedish authorities is definitely to blame for all this kind of frauds & scams. They make them possible!

These two shall not have any state money what so ever in the future - but we all know,its the opposite and that's also why they can keep on doing this kind of activity..A disgrace!

Posted by Angry Swede on January 14, 2010 02:22

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I do hope they are banned from re entering Thailand. They should be made to pay back the money they have scammed.

Posted by elizabeth on January 15, 2010 14:46

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Yep. As Graham says, these leeches should rot. Bad choices in their lifes. But I guess they also think the world aka the system aka the government aka the tourists owe them a good living and forget the only person responsible for this task is themselves. Hope they hate chilli food.

Thanks for reporting Phuketwan. Only transparency can stop them from leeching others. What a sad turn in your christmas story.

Posted by Lena on January 15, 2010 19:52


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