Aussie Mother faces jail in Thailand for bar prank

[MrBurns]

Do we need to have official travel warnings just to advise people to be polite?

I expect if she had pleasantly asked the bar manager if she could take the mat as a souvenir of her wonderful holiday in his wonderful country, there would have been smiles all round and happy agreement.

Attitude is everything.

If 5 years jail is the punishment for what she did yes, we do need warnings.

You can say what you like to Australian police and you get "understanding", they go too far we dont go far enough.

 

[MrBurns]

I'll tell you something else . I've never been there and if it's like that I wont go ever, if you make one mistake you could find yourself in a hellish prison for years.

 

[nunthewiser]

i have been to thailand twice

i got drunk both times

i didnt steal anything nor disrespect any local law enforcement officers

i paid for ALL souvenirs

I didnt get arrested

mmmm moral to story ??

behave yourself and show respect in a foreign country?

 

[Garpal Gumnut]

This thread is too full of common sense.

Could someone please let the Shapelle mob know about it so that we can have their take on it.

gg

 

[nomore4s]

5 years jail for stealing that ?, even if you are pissed, and just how pissed and abusive would this mid thirties mother a 4 ? be ?

All tourists OUT, see how that like that little trick.

She hasn't been found guilty yet and even if she is I doubt they will give her 5 years. She could be given just a warning or even found not guilty. She has also been released on bail - IMO I can't see anything unreasonable about how the Thai police have acted so far.
If the stories about her abusing the police are true it is her own fault for the position she is in, I have no doubt she would have been let off with a warning if she had just said sorry.

I have seen plenty of mid thirties mothers of 4 get very drunk and very abusive.

I'll tell you something else . I've never been there and if it's like that I wont go ever, if you make one mistake you could find yourself in a hellish prison for years.

lol, a bit of an over reaction don't you think? 1,000's of other Aussie tourists go over there every year and how often do you hear of something like this? And when you do the offender has usually done something stupid.

Just because you get away with things like that here in Aust doesn't mean you can in other countries, we are too soft here but are then stupid enough to whinge about how 'unfair' things are in other countries when we break their laws and carry on like spoilt little brats.

This won't stop me traveling to countries like Thailand.

 

[nomore4s]

mmmm moral to story ??

behave yourself and show respect in a foreign country?

Bingo

 

[Garpal Gumnut]

Who's going to look after her 14 kids while she is in gaol. That seems unfair to me.

gg

 

[pilots]

This thread is too full of common sense.

Could someone please let the Shapelle mob know about it so that we can have their take on it.

gg

GG, Don't wake up wacko zako again, we don't want to start that all over again.

 

[jono1887]

Who's going to look after her 14 kids while she is in gaol. That seems unfair to me.

gg

she shouldve thought of that before she decided to steal something, and then abuse local authorities, i mean what i kind of parent is she if she still hasnt learnt that stealing = gaol

 

[overit]

Andrew Bolt's view on things. He has some good points... worth a looksy. Schapelle Corby fans probably shouldnt read it.

Full Article - Andrew Bolt - Lay off moral lectures to Thais

ANNICE Smoel needs our help. So let's lay off giving our usual moral lectures to the Thais.

Given the kind of Australians they see in Patpong, Pattaya and Phuket - and who I've talked to in their jails - I doubt they'd be impressed.

They'd be less likely than even Indonesians or Singaporeans to respond well to our usual flaming outrage at wicked Asians, which proved so useless in helping Schapelle Corby, the Bali Nine, or Nguyen Tuong Van.

But here we go again. In fact, it may be precisely our brand of abusive finger-wagging at Asian authorities that got Smoel into this pickle.

.........

A local tourism publication, Phuketwan, yesterday claimed the same: "Phuketwan has been told that Ms Smoel 'went ballistic' at the time of the incident, abusing officers all the way up to the local chief of police . . .

"While bad language and anger are tolerated these days in many Western countries, they are not condoned in Thailand and usually only compound the problem for any tourist in trouble."

I don't know what was said. But I do know it's a mistake to think that us now berating Thai officials is the best way to help Smoel get out of a trouble allegedly caused by berating Thai officials.

Do we really not understand that our raucous manners and big mouths don't charm many foreigners? Do we really need to be told that abusing and lording it over Asian police and judges in particular buys us nothing but trouble?

 

[Calliope]

We have long been conditioned to believe that to show the ugly face of Australia overseas is the norm.

 

[Sean K]

We have long been conditioned to believe that to show the ugly face of Australia overseas is the norm.

No, it still embarrasses me when Aussies turn up over here and act like gooses. Once we are in a pack, it can turn pretty ugly. Many people think Americans are loud....It is not the norm however. I have a semi unbiased opinion that Aussies are well respected overseas. Or, maybe they are just relieved when I say 'pais de Kangaroo' with my hands cocked sillily in front of my face like skippy, instead of 'Americano'.

 

[Sean K]

Golly, she's apparantly claiming that her friends stuffed the slop mat in her bag as a 'joke'.

Mrs Smoel, who was partying with a group of about 10 friends, claimed two of the women stuffed a bar mat in her handbag as a joke.

http://www.news.com.au/travel/story/0,28318,25510657-27977,00.html

Yeah, right.

Does it take '2 women' to stuff a bar mat in a handbag? Must have been a big f'n bar mat!

This story has more holes than a crumpet.

 

[gordon2007]

It seems to me she had a bad case of being a "loud american". It's very much like when americans used to say "hey you can't do that to me, i'm american". People tend to forgot that when you're overseas, being an "australian" means nothing!

I can understand people are on holidays and feeling a bit loose, but being beyond obnoxious is not good manners, no matter what country one is in or from. What ever happened to the thought that when traveling overseas, you were an ambassador of your country.

Personally, I think she'll be freed soon enough. Perhaps get stuck there a few more weeks, just enough to teach a lesson about respect from one human to another.

 

[cuttlefish]

Personally, I think she'll be freed soon enough. Perhaps get stuck there a few more weeks, just enough to teach a lesson about respect from one human to another.

It'll be interesting to see what happens - I wouldn't bank on her being released easily - and I don't think she's helping her case by bringing up a media storm over it.

The more she openly criticises Thai authorities the more difficult she makes it for them to release her and still save face at the same time. People in foreign countries also need to realise that there is probably not much the Australian government can do in these situations. If a Thai citizen was locked up for being aggressive in Australia nobody would expect the Aust Government to turn around and release them just because the Thai government asked them to.

She needs to deal with this in Thailand and I can't see it helping her case to bring media attention to it and turn it into an Australia vs Thailand thing. The last thinig the Thai government would want is to give the impression that they'd let the Australian government or Australia push them around. The more the Thai public perceives that Australia is pressuring for her release or criticising their country, culture or legal system, the more likely it is that they will apply their legal system stringently and unsympathetically.

By not resolving it at the time of arrest she has got herself caught up in the legal system - this could drag on for a long time.

Regardless of her behaviour which sounds quite stupid and disrespectful in the circumstances, I do think it would be tragic for her to end up in a Thai prison for 5 years over it and really unfair on her children.

 

[Stan 101]

Andrew Bolt's view on things. He has some good points... worth a looksy. Schapelle Corby fans probably shouldnt read it.

Full Article - Andrew Bolt - Lay off moral lectures to Thais

Terrific report by Andrew Bolt. Reminds me of an Australian girl I once saw abuse and old lady after being charged 30 baht per KG for the washing, ironing and folding of her laundry. Apparently a few years earlier it had only cost 25 Baht per KG.

 

[gordon2007]

I whole heartedly agree. She also needs to publicly accept responsibility for her actions and an genuine apology wouldn't go astray either.

The more she openly criticises Thai authorities the more difficult she makes it for them to release her and still save face at the same time. People in foreign countries also need to realise that there is probably not much the Australian government can do in these situations. If a Thai citizen was locked up for being aggressive in Australia nobody would expect the Aust Government to turn around and release them just because the Thai government asked them to.

She needs to deal with this in Thailand

 

[Prospector]

Ok, it sounds like a case of bad behaviour and drunkeness, again. Huge consequences though. Legally, the only thing she has been charged with is the theft of the mat; yet the owner isnt pressing charges. So why is she still waiting for Court and being held on bail if she hasnt been charged with anything else?

People do things when on holidays, things they know would land them in jail in Australia. Or take risks that we know have a good chance of ending up in hospital - where the activities we do are not illegal but not safe. Why do we do that?

I havent been to Thailand although a member of my family has. His friend had an incident which could have gone really nasty, well, it did anyway but not legally; but thankfully they immediately sought the assistance of a local lawyer who followed procedure humbly and appropriately it seems.

 

[Calliope]

People tend to forgot that when you're overseas, being an "australian" means nothing!

Yes. Try making a smartarse comment to an official at an American customs checkpoint and you will see how far being an Australian gets you. The full body search is not pleasant, but it does improve your manners.

 

[cuttlefish]

His friend had an incident which could have gone really nasty, well, it did anyway but not legally; but thankfully they immediately sought the assistance of a local lawyer who followed procedure humbly and appropriately it seems.

This underlines the fact that there are right ways and wrong ways of doing things. After the Schappelle Corby situation you'd think that some kind of lessons would have sunk in, but here we see the same pattern again.
She has engaged an Australian lawyer ... well that will help her just as much as if a Latvian on assault charges in Sydney hired a Latvian lawyer.

The Australian lawyer then repeats the same pattern of idiocy by immediately and publicly confronting the authorities and denying the charges and her abusive behaviour. Encouraging her to publicly apologise for her behaviour (something she can quite easily do without admitting any guilt) would be a far better course of action I would have thought.