PHUKET – A 44-year-old British man has been hauled into custody by Patong police after a boozy night out spiralled into a viral spectacle of streaking and shrooms, capping off a grim week for wayward expats in this sun-soaked island paradise.
Aidan, whose surname was withheld by authorities, was nabbed in the early hours of Friday morning following a 21-second clip that lit up social media like a firecracker.
The footage, captured at 12:12 a.m. on bustling Bangla Road – Phuket’s neon-drenched epicentre of bars and revelry – shows the middle-aged tourist shimmying starkers to thumping bass, oblivious to the gawking crowds. He pauses only long enough to snatch his trousers, scoop up his discarded shirt, and bolt into the night.
Officers, tipped off by the online frenzy, tracked Aidan down swiftly. But the real kicker came during questioning at Patong station: a search turned up 0.89 grams of psilocybin mushrooms – those trippy ‘magic’ fungi classified as a Category 5 narcotic under Thai law – tucked in his kit. “The mushrooms may well have fuelled his antics,” a police spokesperson said, shaking their head at the all-too-familiar tale of tourists letting loose a bit too loose.
Aidan now stares down a trio of charges: indecent exposure for his moonlit mambo, unauthorized possession of the illicit shrooms, and – the cherry on top – overstaying his visa by a whopping 162 days.
Penalties could stretch from fines and deportation to jail time, a stark reminder that Thailand’s fabled tolerance has its limits.
He’s been remanded pending court, where his fate will hinge on how deeply the judge takes to his “it was just a laugh” defence.
Tourists Behaving Badly in Phuket
This isn’t some isolated pratfall, either. Aidan’s collar comes hot on the heels of another eyebrow-raiser: just a day prior, on Thursday, Phuket City police reeled in a 23-year-old Russian content creator named Georgii at Suvarnabhumi Airport, mid-escape to Bangkok.
The lad’s sin? Filming a jaw-dropping sex tape – him and a hired Thai woman, both buck-naked – on the flatbed of a black pickup hurtling down the Phuket Bypass Road. The 15-second clip, peddled for his Russian Instagram fans, shows the pair at it hammer and tongs, grinning for the camera as traffic whizzes by.
Georgii’s partner-in-crime, a 42-year-old local, reportedly paid a paltry 1,000 baht (£22) for her role, spilled the beans under grilling: it was all for the clicks. Cops slapped him with public indecency – a fine up to 5,000 baht – and recommended immigration boot him out for good, blacklisting him from Thai shores.
“We’ve got a history of this sort of filth from him,” snorted one investigator, pointing to his track record of X-rated uploads. The stunt, locals fume, spits in the face of Phuket’s family-friendly facade.
These back-to-back busts underscore a mounting migraine for Thai tourism chiefs: foreigners acting the goat, one pint at a time. From Koh Samui to Pattaya, the headlines scream of expats and holidaymakers turning tipsy tantrums into full-blown farces.
Just last December, a Ukrainian dad-of-three went feral outside a Karon Beach hotel, brawling with cops and guards in a booze-soaked frenzy that left him charged with disturbing the peace and assaulting officers.
“He was like a bull in a china shop,” recalled a bystander, as the man – wild-eyed and weaving – dodged takedowns before being cuffed.
And it’s not letting up. Earlier this year, Brits Andrew Brett and Peter Hull found themselves in the slammer for peddling coke and ecstasy to ravers, while a Norwegian woman vanished in Phuket after a bar crawl gone wrong, only to resurface semi-clothed on a street corner.
Then there’s the parade of full-moon party fiends caught with narcotics, or the drone-flying numpties buzzed for invading sacred sites. “Drunk and disorderly? It’s the tip of the iceberg,” sighs Pol Col Chatree Chukaew, head of Muang Phuket station.
“These ‘guests’ forget they’re visitors, not owners. We’re cracking down – visas revoked, bans slapped on. Thailand’s no playground for plonkers.”
Tourism operators, nursing a post-pandemic boom now soured by scandals, echo the sentiment. “We’ve got beaches like jewels, but one idiot with a bottle and bad ideas tarnishes the lot,” says a veteran bar owner on Bangla Road.
With arrivals dipping amid safety jitters and a strengthening baht, the powers-that-be are doubling down: more Tourist Police patrols, random ID checks, and zero mercy for visa scofflaws.
For Aidan, nursing his regrets in a cell, the party’s well and truly over. As Phuket’s nightlife pulses on, one can’t help but wonder: how many more headlines before the tourists get the memo? Respect the ring, or pack your bags – Thailand’s laying down the law, one arrest at a time.
