TIMESHARE and tailor touts who harass tourists on Phuket's streets are nearly all illegal, a special probe ordered by the Prime Minister into Phuket's tourism troubles was told yesterday.

Told to ''fix Phuket'' by the PM, Deputy Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of the Interior, Prania Suwanrath, heard testimony from Phuket business leaders and administrators yesterday for almost four hours.

It's the first time top-level government investigators have come to Phuket to hear what residents have to say about corruption and the damage being done to Phuket tourism.

Phuket's media has been asked not to identify the people who spoke at yesterday's long session.

Phuket's Khun D told the meeting at Provincial Hall in Phuket City:

''If you go to Patong, behind the long lines of parked tuk-tuks you will find touts on the footpaths. They pursue the tourists without letting up, trying to sell CDs, movies, souvenirs, tailored suits, timeshare . . . all kinds of products.

''Some of these people have work permits but these are jobs for Thais and there is no explanation for how they get these permits. But we know.

''The first work permit for someone to obtain will cost the applicant 50,000 baht in an under-the-table payment. Renewals will cost 30,000 baht.

''Three big companies are able to obtain work permits for these people.

''The Labor Office doesn't realise how this affects Phuket's tourism industry so badly. Some of these touts have been known to be very rude, and even to beat up tourists who complain.

''Is this the image that Phuket wants? It happens all the time, almost every day, in Patong, Kata-Karon, and even in Surin.''

On the topic of expat mafia, Phuket's Khun D said that almost each nationality on Phuket had their own ''mini-mafia,'' but they were mostly scared of high-ranking people in uniform.

''Foreigner bars have foreigners working in them all along the Phuket west coast. Most of them don't have work permits, or if they do have work permits, they have been illegally obtained.

''Russia, Italy, Spain, India . . . all these countries have 'mafia' here. But the real mafia is the mafia in uniform.''

Khun Prania and his team were visiting Patong today. What the investigators have been told about Phuket will be reported to the Prime Minister next week. Khun Prania said his plan is to keep coming to Phuket until Phuket is ''fixed.''

A barrage of complaints from tourists, directed through honorary consuls and ambassadors to senior government ministers and PM Abhisit Vejjajiva, has led to Bangkok intervention to resolve Phuket's problems.

Another major investigation by officers from the Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission recently questioned people on Phuket over several days and could eventually result in prosecutions.