Thai tuk tuk driver’s fare fight leads to handcuffs in Bangkok

Police arrested a Thai tuk tuk driver for physically assaulting two foreign passengers on Phloen Chit Road in the Pathum Wan district of Bangkok on the night of November 5 after they failed to agree on the fare.

Lumphini Police Station officers received a complaint of theft from two foreigners in the middle of the night and rushed to the alleged crime scene in front of the Phloen Chit building on Phloen Chit Road.

Police met with the foreigners, an English man named Jasvinder Singh Nain and an Indian man named Mandeep Sing. The officers questioned them about what they had lost in the theft and found that they had not lost anything but that the Thai tuk tuk driver had attacked them after failing to overcharge them.

The two foreigners reported that the Thai tuk tuk driver assaulted them with a hard unidentified object before leaving the scene. The two said they sought first aid at the nearby hospital before reporting the matter to police.

Police checked the security camera at the scene and other CCTV cameras along the road until they were able to identify the Thai tuk tuk driver as 32 year old Auttapon Phew-on. Auttapon was arrested yesterday, November 7, and admitted to the physical assault but claimed that he had acted in self-defence.

Auttapon explained that he could not agree on the fare with the two foreigners and was unable to communicate because of the language barrier. He said the foreigners tried to assault him, so he grabbed a wrench and hit them on the head before fleeing.

The officers reported that Auttapon’s criminal record showed that he had never committed a crime before. If convicted, Auttapon faces up to two years of imprisonment, a fine of up to 40,000 baht, or both for violating Section 295 of the Penal Law: assaulting another person.

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