Crime
Frenchman Arrested for Operating Illegal Resort in Koh Samui, Thailand
SURAT THANI – A Frenchman has been arrested on the resort Island of Koh Samui in Surat Thani for allegedly running a hotel without license or work permit.
Surat Thani immigration police chief Pol Colonel Supalerk Phankosol said Yant Daniel Dukaruce (not official spelling) was arrested at a Lamai Beach hotel in Moo 3 village of Tambon Maret in Koh Samui district at 8pm Monday.
The raid followed complaints by operators of legal hotels on the vacation island that some foreign businessmen were providing illegal accommodation on the island.
Thai officials learned that a firm associated with the Frenchman illegally modified five villas on the mountain to provide 22 hotel rooms.
Mr. Dukaruce was taken to the Samui police station for interrogation before seeking the court’s permission to remand him pending further investigation.
Pol Colonel Supalerk said police summoned the Frenchman to face charges of illegally running a hotel, but he refused to turn up at the police station. Police later learned that he planned to fly from the island to Suvarnabhumi Airport on Tuesday and intended to leave the country, so they obtained and executed an arrest warrant from the Samui Court.
Meanwhile, Immigration Bureau Lt-Gen Sompong Chingduang has announced the arrest of a Russian man who was blacklisted and deported and who then changed his name and went back to Koh Phangan as a Romanian.
Sergey Milentiy was previously based on the holiday island in southern Thailand. In January of 2016 he was fined for illegal work and given a two month sentence and fine for running a business without a license.
The sentence was suspended and he was deported and blacklisted.
However, in September of last year he snuck back into Thailand on a new fake passport posing as Romanian national Sergiu Milentii.
He was finally caught staying at the Up 2 You hotel on Koh Phangan, he will once again be deported.
Source: Samui Times, The Nation