Phuket’s Biggest Stories From the Past Week: Foreign Motorbike Riders Arrested for Damaging Police Chains, and More

The following is our weekly feature in which we highlight the top local stories in our area of Phuket from the past week. The number of stories differs from week to week.

These are chosen and curated by our editorial team and are designed for our readers to get a quick “catch-up” of important stories they may have missed. We publish many stories daily and it is easy to lose track of important events or changes in our area. We do national recaps in a separate article, this is only the top local stories in Phuket.

They are in no particular order of importance but roughly in order of publishing. These are from Monday, April 29th to Sunday May 5th, 2024

1. A disagreement over taxi fare payment turned violent when a foreign passenger assaulted a Tuk Tuk driver in Phuket.

A British man was arrested in Krabi after he reportedly attacked a Tuk Tuk taxi driver in Phuket over a fare payment dispute.

Taxi problems continue to regularly appear in the news in Phuket.

2. Phuket City Police apprehended a Turkish man caught in the act of severing a police chain.

A Russian motorbike rider was finally arrested after he successfully cut a police chain that had locked his motorbike parked in a no parking area and then sped away.

Two French men were arrested immediately on Thursday (May 2^nd) while they were trying to break a police chain that locked a motorbike parking at a no-parking zone in Patong.

Turns out it is a very bad idea to break police motorbike chains in Thailand.

3. The former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra personally visited the Bangla Road in Patong on Tuesday night (April 30^th).

Thaksin did not release a statement and it did not appear that he actually visited any clubs, bars, or cannabis shops during his visit.

4. A New Zealander was arrested after playing fireworks at the Patong Beach after midnight on Thursday (May 2^nd).

The Phuket Express noted that the punishment for this is imprisonment for up to three years or fines up to 60,000 baht or both.

5. On Thursday, May 2nd, a British national was detained at Phuket International Airport for carrying cocaine.

This isn’t the first incident where a tourist arrived at the Phuket airport with cocaine inside of their passport, as a similar incident took place to an Australian national, as seen below, in November of 2023.

6. An American man, identified only as Mr. Ali, aged 36, was apprehended by Phuket Immigration officers on Friday, May 3rd, at approximately 11:00 A.M.

However, there was no explicit mention of the alleged assault by the officers.

That’s it for this week. Be safe!

The preceding is a press release from the Thai Government PR Department.