British woman jailed after collecting debt from Thai millionaire
A British woman accused a Thai millionaire of bribing police to have her jailed after she travelled from the UK to Thailand to collect an unpaid service fee of £30,000 (approximately 1.25 million baht) for her company.
Rachel Stallard, a British private estate consultant, shared her distressing experience in a Thai jail on her LinkedIn account but later deleted the post after being released. However, her story was reported by the Daily Mail and the Thai news agency, Channel 3.
Stallard explained that she travelled to Thailand to collect the unpaid service fee from her Thai client, who previously utilised her company’s consultancy services but failed to pay the £30,000 charge and stopped responding to communications.
During their meeting, the client reportedly became irate. Stallard alleges that her wealthy client used his influence and money to bribe police officers into pressing baseless charges against her, subsequently resulting in the British woman being imprisoned without any wrongdoing.
According to Stallard, she was accused of seven serious offences, although she did not specify the nature of the charges. If convicted, she could face up to 20 years in prison.
Stallard described being held in a prison cell without any food or drinks, forcing her to bribe a police officer for scraps of food. She also shared photos of the prison’s conditions, revealing a cell with no proper bathroom facilities, just a squatting toilet and a bucket of water.
Broke and in debt
She then managed to contact a colleague in Bangkok, who brought her food, water, mosquito spray, and wet wipes. Despite her efforts to seek assistance from the British Embassy in Thailand, she criticised their response as inadequate.
“I sat in that jail cell for days, not knowing the time of day, imagining what my life was about to become, and it was terrifying. The officials were useless, even though they knew the charges were totally fake. In fact, on the third call, the lady who answered hung up once I told her my name.”
Stallard was able to contact her family but had only one opportunity to explain the situation to her 80 year old mother and her daughter.
Fortunately, Stallard managed to secure her temporary release by paying £14,000 (approximately 590,000 baht) in bail and £24,000 (approximately 1 million baht) in legal fees. She lost a total of £70,000 (2.8 million baht) to return home, leaving her in debt.
However, Stallard is still required to await trial, which could take six to eight years. She insisted that there is no evidence of her wrongdoing in the seven charges she faces.
After her ordeal, the British woman spent some time in Bangkok and other provinces in Thailand according to her post on LinkedIn three weeks ago. She stated that she plans to return to the UK soon.
Channel 3 reported that Stallard’s post about Thai prisons attracted numerous complaints regarding corruption in the country. However, some netizens questioned how the British woman was able to use her mobile phone to take pictures inside the cell.
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