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Brit pensioner and Thai wife steal cash and mattress from neighbour
| Published: | 4 Oct at 6 PM |
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A British expat retiree and his Thai wife have been arrested after being caught on camera stealing a mattress and cash.
Sidney Michael Edwards and his wife Phensakao Nasok were arrested in a Pattaya rooming house last week after being caught on CCTV whilst stealing 126,000 baht (£3,000) and a mattress from an adjacent rented room. The couple. from Thailand’s Mukdahan province. had been staying in a rented room in Pattaya next door to another room rented by a Briton who was on holiday in Cambodia at the time. When he returned to his lodgings, he realised his door had been forced open and his money, along with his mattress, had been stolen.
When Pattaya police arrived, they checked the CCTV security camera in the corridor and found a full record of the couple’s criminal activity, with Sidney forcing the door whilst his wife acted as a lookout. Sydney was shown dragging the six-foot mattress through the door and up to the door of their room. Both were arrested and initially denied the charges during interrogation, but were forced to confess after they were shown the video of their actions.
Their excuse for the burglary was that they were desperately short of cash as well as needing the mattress for their own room, with Sidney insisting they hadn’t yet spent the stolen money. As is the norm in Thailand, the couple were taken back to the rooming house to re-enact their crime after they’d been charged with burglary, but reports don’t mention police reactions whilst they watched the 72 year-old British pensioner struggling to maneuver the large mattress all over again.
Also in Pattaya, a letter to a local English language newspaper is urging British expat retirees to sign a petition on the website of the Consortium of British Pensioners in order to call the British government’s attention to the plight of UK retirees whose state pensions are frozen at the amount being paid at the time of emigration. The financial plight of British state pensioners in Thailand is getting worse by the week as the pound sterling falls further, meaning those with no alternative income or large amounts of capital may find it impossible to manage.
A British retiree arriving in the popular retirement destination 10 years ago would have enjoyed an exchange rate of 70 baht to the pound, whereas today’s rate is around 40 -42 and is likely to fall still further after Brexit becomes a reality.
Sidney Michael Edwards and his wife Phensakao Nasok were arrested in a Pattaya rooming house last week after being caught on CCTV whilst stealing 126,000 baht (£3,000) and a mattress from an adjacent rented room. The couple. from Thailand’s Mukdahan province. had been staying in a rented room in Pattaya next door to another room rented by a Briton who was on holiday in Cambodia at the time. When he returned to his lodgings, he realised his door had been forced open and his money, along with his mattress, had been stolen.
When Pattaya police arrived, they checked the CCTV security camera in the corridor and found a full record of the couple’s criminal activity, with Sidney forcing the door whilst his wife acted as a lookout. Sydney was shown dragging the six-foot mattress through the door and up to the door of their room. Both were arrested and initially denied the charges during interrogation, but were forced to confess after they were shown the video of their actions.
Their excuse for the burglary was that they were desperately short of cash as well as needing the mattress for their own room, with Sidney insisting they hadn’t yet spent the stolen money. As is the norm in Thailand, the couple were taken back to the rooming house to re-enact their crime after they’d been charged with burglary, but reports don’t mention police reactions whilst they watched the 72 year-old British pensioner struggling to maneuver the large mattress all over again.
Also in Pattaya, a letter to a local English language newspaper is urging British expat retirees to sign a petition on the website of the Consortium of British Pensioners in order to call the British government’s attention to the plight of UK retirees whose state pensions are frozen at the amount being paid at the time of emigration. The financial plight of British state pensioners in Thailand is getting worse by the week as the pound sterling falls further, meaning those with no alternative income or large amounts of capital may find it impossible to manage.
A British retiree arriving in the popular retirement destination 10 years ago would have enjoyed an exchange rate of 70 baht to the pound, whereas today’s rate is around 40 -42 and is likely to fall still further after Brexit becomes a reality.
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