PHUKET: A policeman has been arrested and accused of being part of an attempt to extort 500,000 baht from a Frenchman on Phuket, Phuketwan has learned.

Incriminated in the case is a man already identified as being a ''tax collector'' for corrupt police by Phuket businessman Chart Jindapol.

Senior Phuket police are due to reveal details of the case later this afternoon.

Information is sketchy but it's understood a series of arrests have taken place after Frenchman Henry Richer, 54, lodged a complaint with Vichit Police Station.

He told officers that he's been approached by a Thai man who asked if he wanted to buy ya ice.

Soon after, five men came to his room and menaced him, with one claiming to be a policeman.

The men demanded that he give them 500,000 baht from his ATM account.

Perturbed at the threats, the Frenchman went to Vichit Police Station.

As a result of the investigation, senior Phuket officers will reveal the full circumstances of the arrest of a policeman - named as Pichan Keawkongtam - this afternoon.

Businessman Khun Chart has been in a stand-off recently with Patong's Prab Keesin over whether money paid by Patong businesses is a fee for good goverance or an unwanted legacy of traditional corruption on Phuket.