- Phuket News
Phuket resort scam: British CEO arrested
PHUKET: The British chief executive officer of a Phuket resort company has been arrested on fraud charges for allegedly cheating customers out of millions of baht. Mr Steven James Granville, 43, CEO of Puravarna Resort Co, was arrested at the company’s office in Rawai. Crime Suppression Division police had received information from Mr Anand Kumar Sen, managing director of Tycoon…
- Phuket News
More Phuket forest destroyed
KATA, PHUKET: Two men were arrested on March 19 in what appears to be a large scheme to slash down and develop protected forest land in Phuket. During a routine patrol of land near the Kata viewpoint along Kata-Sai Yuan road, Karon Sub-District Chief (Kamnan) Winai Chitcheiw discovered around five rai of deforested land. Although most of the trees cut…
- Phuket News
Phuketians march in support of prime minister
PHUKET TOWN: Around 200 Phuketians and members of the Phuket People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) took to the streets on March 31, voicing their objections to the red-shirted United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD) rally in Bangkok. The crowd marched from Queen Sirikit park to Phuket Provincial Hall waving banners and parading a huge national flag. In a show…
- Phuket News
Phuket Airport snubbed
Phuket NEWS Hound – A daily, pocket-sized packet of news from around the world, compiled by Phuket Gazette reporters for foreigners who want it short, sharp and straight to the point. PHUKET: Bangkok Airways, Thailand’s largest privately owned carrier, plans to turn Samui Airport, rather than Phuket International Airport, into a second international air hub, after Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, in…
- Phuket News
Phuket water woes averted
PHUKET: Recent heavy downpours have ensured that Phuket should now have enough water to last until the rainy season, according to the Phuket Provincial Irrigation Office (PPIO). Mr Issara Anukool, who heads the PPIO’s water management department, said that before the recent rains there was enough water in the Bang Wad dam to last until the end of May. “After…
- Phuket News
Phuket to benefit from second airport
CHALONG, PHUKET: Plans for a second major Phuket airport, to be situated in Chalong, have been tendered and construction could begin as early as February next year. A 140-million-baht feasibility study and pro forma environmental impact evaluation of the project are nearing completion, according to Jet Terminals Co (JTC) of San Diego, California. “On the basis of the research and…
- Phuket News
Phuket meeting to urge end to protests
Phuket NEWS Hound – A daily, pocket-sized packet of news from around the world, compiled by Phuket Gazette reporters for foreigners who want it short, sharp and straight to the point. PHUKET: More than 1,000 local tourism sector representatives and tour operators will gather in Bangkok, Phuket, Chiang Mai, Krabi, Pattaya and Samui tomorrow afternoon to urge anti-government red-shirt protesters to end their political rallies. The protests resulted…
- Phuket News
Phuket trash crisis: Tesco goes it alone
PHUKET: Tesco Lotus yesterday launched its own answer to Phuket’s long-delayed plastic bag charging scheme. The UK-based retail chain’s “Green Bag Green Point” initiative rewards customers who reuse old shopping bags with points which can be exchanged for cash coupons. Customers also receive “green points” when they buy certain environmentally friendly products. The project was launched in Bangkok on March…
- Phuket News
Accused Australian bailed tonight
PHUKET: An Australian man accused of sexually assaulting a four-year-old boy at an international school in Phuket is set to be released on bail this evening. Andrew Clements, 51, posted 800,000 baht in bail and will be released from Phuket Provincial Prison. Mr Clements, from northern Tasmania, was arrested at his house in Chalong by Thalang Police at 8:15pm on…
- Phuket News
Phuket Immigration closed during holiday
PHUKET: The Phuket Provincial Immigration Office (PPIO) will be closed for a week during the upcoming Songkran public holiday, the Gazette has learned. The Phuket Town Immigration office will be closed from April 13 until April 18 and any foreigners who need to register with immigration during that period are urged to do so by April 12 or on April…
- Opinion
OPINION: In defense of Phuket Town
PHUKET: What’s the name of the administrative capital of this island of ours? If you answered ‘Phuket City’, you are technically correct. The Thai government raised the status of the town to ‘thesaban nakhon’ – which can be translated as ‘city municipality’ – on February 13, 2004. According to the government’s definition, a municipality needs a population of at least…
- Phuket News
Life after death: Bereaved family turn Phuket lifesavers
PHUKET: The family of a young Canadian man who died in a freak accident in Patong six years ago have donated six Automatic External Defibrillators (AEDs) to Phuket hospitals and rescue foundations. Noah Yelizarov, 19, died as a result of electrical shock on October 9, 2004. He was in Phuket on holiday with three friends. Standing knee-deep in flood water…
- Phuket News
Dane found dead in Phuket guesthouse
KATA, PHUKET: A Danish tourist died while eating pizza in a Phuket guesthouse on Thursday. A maid at Tik Place in Kata told police she grew suspicious when Mr Svend Aage Schwaback, 69, failed to check out on time. After failing to get a response from Mr Schwaback, the maid entered his room and found him lying on the bed…
- Phuket News
Phuket gang boots Italian off bike
PHUKET: Police arrested two minors and a 26-year-old man in Phuket on March 25 for kicking an Italian tourist off his motorcycle and stealing his cell phone, credit cards, licenses and 1,500 baht in cash. Ferdinando Rota, 50, was heading down Pracha Uthit Road towards Thepkrasattri Road around 2am when four Thais on two bikes passed him in the other…
- Phuket News
Phuket Gazette moves to Koh Kaew
PHUKET: After 17 years in Phuket, the last 13 of them in Phuket Town, the Phuket Gazette moves to Koh Kaew on Wednesday. Located just off the west side (northbound lanes) of Thepkrasattri Rd, the new office complex is roughly midway between the Bypass Rd and the Heroines’ Monument. If traveling north, take a left turn immediately after the large…
- Chiang Mai News
Police raid bypass main contractor
PHUKET CITY: A team of Crime Suppression Division officers led by Pol Col Sompop Pongrerk, along with officials from the Phuket Provincial Industrial Office, on Friday afternoon seized rock-crushing equipment belonging to Chiang Rai Harn Charoen Enterprise Co, the main contractor for the bypass road widening project. The seizures took place following complaints that Harn Charoen had been crushing rock…
- Phuket News
Phuket’s praises sung – loudly
Phuket NEWS Hound – A daily, pocket-sized packet of news from around the world, compiled by Phuket Gazette reporters for foreigners who want it short, sharp and straight to the point. PHUKET: While not all is well in Thailand, with fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra threatening to incite civil disobedience nationwide [see story below], Phuket continues to generate favorable…
- Phuket News
Accident claims two lives in Phuket
RAWAI, PHUKET: A Frenchman and a Thai man were killed in a motorcycle accident in Phuket in the early hours of March 25. Chalong Police found Cyril Chausse, 40, dead at the scene near his smashed motorcycle. His bike collided with a motorcycle driven by Loei-native Naphatphol Hongchumphare, 25, who died on the way to hospital. Mr Naphatphol, who worked…
- Phuket News
Englishman found dead in Phuket home
KATHU, PHUKET: A retired businessman from England was found dead in his Phuket home on Monday. Tung Tong Police found the body of William Mann, 63, lying on a sofa in the living room of his house with a bloody tissue in one hand and a wound on the right eyebrow. Investigators found no signs of a struggle. However, there…
- Thailand News
Peeping Tom’s tricks exposed
UDON THANI: Police are questioning the owner of a woman’s dormitory after residents found CCTV cameras hidden in their bedrooms and bathrooms. The cameras were first spotted by 24-year-old Phornphat Kimsee as she was taking a shower in the early hours of February 28. Miss Phornphat, who manages a branch of fast food chain Chester’s Grill, said she looked up…
- Phuket News
Breaking through: Phuket road near completion
WICHIT, PHUKET: The final stages of construction are set to begin on a long awaited road connecting the bypass road near HomeWorks to Ekwahnit Road behind Surakul stadium. Phuket Governor Wichai Phraisa-ngop swung the project into action by helping demolish a wall with a sledgehammer on March 24. The 550-meter-long road, running behind Darasamuth School, was expected to have been…
- Phuket News
Phuket bike tragedy: three young lives lost
PHUKET: Three young women sharing a motorcycle died instantly in Phuket when a car traveling in the opposite direction veered into the wrong lane and hit them head on, police say. The accident took place around 4am on Chao Fa East Road close to the Kisalai Swimming Club near Kwang Road on Tuesday. Chuleeporn Primprai, 18, Pattarawan Boonpachuen, 20, and…
- Phuket News
Phuket rescuer: Italian’s boat “did not capsize’
KAMALA, PHUKET: An elderly Italian man found unconscious on a dinghy in Phuket’s Kamala Bay on Friday reportedly complained to his girlfriend of chest pains before setting out. Dinu Costa, 71, was later pronounced dead by doctors at Patong Hospital. Some local media reported that Mr Costa died after waves caused his boat to capsize. However, Phuket Ruamkatanyu Foundation rescue…
- Phuket News
Phuket yacht enthusiast ‘Boo’ dies
PHUKET: Local yachting enthusiast Boo Meesuk died this morning in Malaysia after falling ill while delivering a yacht to Phuket. Boo had been in a coma for more than two and a half weeks at a hospital in Terengganu. In a statement to members of the Ao Chalong Yacht Club (ACYC), Mick Kealy said, “It is with deep regret that…
- Phuket News
Private jets to rise in Phuket
Phuket NEWS Hound – A daily, pocket-sized packet of news from around the world, compiled by Phuket Gazette reporters for foreigners who want it short, sharp and straight to the point. PHUKET: Thai business aircraft operator MJets has opened the country’s first dedicated fixed-base operation (FBO) at Bangkok’s Don Mueang airport to exploit the growing demand for business aviation throughout…
- Phuket News
Phuket beach clear of killer jellies
NAI HARN, PHUKET : The Phuket Marine Biological Center (PMBC) has found no evidence of deadly jellyfish on Nai Harn Beach.After the hospitalization of a four-year-old boy last week due to a jellyfish sting, PMBC researchers sampled the area by sweeping the waters with two nets at depths of 1.1 and 1.4 meters.The operation netted seven jellyfish of the painful…
- Phuket News
Fundraiser for Phuket yachtsman Boo Meesuk
PHUKET: The Ao Chalong Yacht Club (ACYC) in Phuket will host a fundraising event on Friday for local yacht enthusiast Boo Meesuk. About two and a half weeks ago, Boo fell seriously ill while delivering a yacht to Phuket. His condition was critical by the time the rest of the crew managed to get him to a hospital in Terengganu,…
- Phuket News
Phuket slaying: man murdered for making noise
RASSADA, PHUKET: Police are hunting two men they believe stabbed a neighbor to death in Phuket on Sunday night for making too much noise in an apartment block. Ponsan Noi-oonsaen, a 41-year-old Chiang Mai native, died around 10:30pm after being stabbed at least five times in the chest with what were described by a witness as “foot-long knives”. Thirty-year-old Teeradech…
- Phuket News
Fires rage again in Phuket
KOH KAEW, PHUKET: A forest fire threatened to scorch nearby communities in Phuket yesterday as it blazed through uninhabited forest. The fire began around 2:00pm in a stretch of forest about 300 meters from Tha Reua shrine, next to Jee Teng Villa in Koh Kaew. Fire engines from five local organizations were dispatched to the spreading blaze and had the…
- Phuket News
Readers’ Poll: Have protests put Phuket in the red?
PHUKET TOWN: With the latest red-shirt protests driving business away from Bangkok, we’re asking our readers about the effect the demonstrations have had on the Phuket tourism industry. Have the protests had a negative effect? Have they had a positive influence due to tourists being rerouted from Bangkok to Phuket? Or have they had no effect whatsoever? Have your say…
