PHUKET: Phuket police are likely to check government vehicles more closely after the arrest of a policeman who was using a police van to carry Burmese out of Thailand - then bring back illegal workers.

The system being used by errant police was discovered yesterday at an Army checkpoint not far from Mae Sot, on the border with Burma. Like the border port of Ranong, north of Phuket, Mae Sot is a point where illegal workers are deported to Burma.

Two police vans, carrying illegal Burmese workers scheduled for deportation, passed the army checkpoint not far from Mae Sot about 9am.

About 5pm, the first returning police van failed to stop at the checkpoint when waved down. By the time soldiers mounted a pursuit, the van had disappeared.

The second van also did not stop but soldiers managed to pull it to the side of the road about two kilometres away.

There, checkpoint superintendent Second Lieutenant Praturng Pangsungnern later told his superiors, soldiers encountered policeman Kirat Leeksawat at the wheel with 10 illegal Burmese in the back of the van.

The six young men and four young women, aged 17 to 20, told the soldiers they had each paid 16,000 baht to a broker to be able to live and work in Thailand.

They had been told to crouch in the van so they could not be seen through the wire mesh.

Later, four kilometres from the checkpoint, soldiers rounded up 28 Burmese - 15 men and 13 women - who had been on the first van, but were ordered off by the police officer who was driving the vehicle.

The Burmese told Second Lieutenant Praturng that the first policeman placed a telephone call to a broker after leaving the ''legal'' illegal Burmese in Mae Sot.

Soldiers found 34,200 baht in cash in the second police van. The hunt is now on for the driver of the first van.

The police were from the province of Tak. Provincial Governor Samas Loyfar said more thorough checks would be made on all government vehicles travelling to the border with Burma from now on.