Vietnamese man arrested for illegally operating beauty clinic in Bangkok condo

Officers from the Consumer Protection Police Division (CPPD) arrested a Vietnamese man for turning a condominium in Bangkok into a beauty clinic and illegally providing beauty services without a permit.

CPPD officers received a report that a Facebook user of a Vietnamese man advertised a beauty clinic in Bangkok. The complainant was unsure whether the beauty clinic was legal or not. Officers checked the Facebook account and found advertisements for beauty services such as double eyelid surgery, nose surgery, lip reshaping surgery, Botox injections, etc.

Police then raided the beauty clinic in a room of a condominium in Soi Phattanakarn 25 in the Suan Luang district of Bangkok yesterday, December 20. Officers found a long queue of customers at the clinic, and a Vietnamese man, 25 year old Dang Thien, who claimed to be a doctor, was about to give his client an injection.

Thien insisted he was a doctor and ran a beauty clinic in Vietnam. He travelled to Bangkok once a month to serve Thai customers and had been doing so for more than a year. He admitted that he did not have a medical license and that his clinic did not have a license to operate.

Officers confiscated 19 types of illegal medicine, 11 pieces of medical equipment, and other relevant tools from the clinic. Three charges were filed against Thien, including:

• Section 16 and 57 of the Hospital Act: operating a hospital without a permit. The penalty will be imprisonment of up to five years, a fine of up to 100,000 baht, or both.
• Section 26 and 43 of the Medical Profession Act: operating medical practices without permission. The penalty will be imprisonment of up to three years, a fine of up to 30,000 baht, or both.
• Section 12 of the Medicine Act: offering medicine without permission. the penalty will be imprisonment of up to five years and a fine of up to 10,000 baht.

Director of the Health Service Support Department, Sura Wisatesak, warned anyone interested in beauty services to carefully check the information of each clinic and hospital before using the services. Sura also urged consumers to be cautious, especially because the service is offered at a cheap price, and not to fully believe in a service review.