Briton and South African Flee Thailand after Murdering British Businessman

 

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PATTAYA – Thailand’s Royal Thai Police has issued a Nation wide warrant for a Briton and a South African who are suspected to be involved in the killing of a British web designer in Pattaya on Tuesday January 24th.

Police said the two suspects identified as Miles Dicken Turner, a 27-year old British national and 23-year old South African Abel Caldeira Bonito escaped into Cambodia on the same day.

Tony Kenway, was shot dead behind the steering wheel of his Porsche in Pattaya with a single bullet on his head by a lone gunman who escaped in a waiting motorcycle after the incident.

Pattaya police said they found an abandoned motorcycle in Soi Pattaya Park and traced it to a rental service whose proprietor said he rented the vehicle to Turner.

Police went to the address given by Turner to the rental company only to find the room empty and that he had already checked out.

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All immigration checkpoints were alerted to look out for Turner, but the alert came too late as the suspect had already crossed the border into Cambodia through Klongyai border crossing in Trat province.

Meanwhile, Police managed to identify the suspected gunman from video footages as South African National Abel Caldeira Bonito. Police said Bonito allegedly shot Kenway and Turner rode the motorcycle.

Immigration officials said Bonito crossed the border into Thailand from Cambodia through the border crossing in Klongyai on December 19 and escaped through the same border crossing on Tuesday at about 3 pm.

Police investigating the case believe a conflict involving an illegal business was the likely motive for the murder.

A police transnational crime suppression team under the command of Pol Gen Suchart Theerasawat, a senior adviser attached to the Royal Thai Police Office, was coordinating with Cambodian authorities to arrest the fleeing suspects, the Bangkok Post reported.

A source on the investigation team said Kenway had been involved in an illegal call centre that had preyed on foreign nationals in European countries.

Kenway was arrested in Thailand in September last year and was granted bail, saying he would fight the charges.

Investigators had learned Kenway had a conflict with a former partner in the call centre who owed him 8 million baht. Kenway had kept asking for payment. When the man failed to settle the debt, Kenway had asked police to arrest him.

His former business partner then moved to Cambodia where he opened a similar call centre operation. However, it did not do well, the source said.

It was believed the two suspects were jointly involved in the Cambodian operation.

Kenway was also facing charges in the UK and was wanted by British authorities, the source said.

Sources: Thai PBS, The Nation, Bangkok Post