‘OIY TAKE ME OUT’ SUES, FAKE COP NABBED, DOG-LICKS- SPOON FURORE
Police under fire for arrest video
A former dating show contestant is suing police for defamation after they released video footage of her being arrested for a fraud offence.
Sornwanwaranpak “Oiy” Pattanawansap, 35, also known as “Oiy Take Me Out” after the name of the dating show on which she appeared, is suing Crime Suppression Division police and the Manager/ASTV newspaper for 10 million baht apiece stemming from her arrest last October.
CSD police turned up at her Phra Ram III condo on Oct 5 last year to execute a warrant in a fraud case, which media reports claimed was one of nine fraud cases brought against her by multiple victims involving total damages of more than 10 million baht.
Video taken by the police showed officers searching her condo briefly as they and her boyfriend wait for her to finish up in the bathroom.
They eventually present a warrant to a puffy-faced Oiy, who is wearing a neck support and bandages around her head, having just undergone surgery on her jaw. Feverish news reports asked if she had undergone cosmetic surgery to change her identity to evade capture. Oiy, who insisted the surgery was to treat injuries incurred in an accident, denied trying to flee.
The complainant in the fraud case which led to her arrest claims Oiy tricked him into investing 1.3 million baht in her pool villa business, which she failed to return when they fell out. The CSD police who made the arrest were acting on behalf of Thung Mahamek police, who handled the case.
Later, media reports say, Makkasan police nabbed her on charges relating to two Honda Accord vehicles on which she had failed to make payments and left idle, resulting in losses of 1.6 million baht.
CSD police released the video and details of her arrest to the media, and it is these which have spurred Oiy into taking legal action. While police insist she had nine cases against her lodged at various stations, resulting in nine warrants, seven of which had been executed at the time they nabbed her on Oct 6, Oiy insists only one case concerned fraud.
“The others were minor cheque matters and most had been cleared up by the time of the raid. The fraud matter was brought by a disgruntled former investor who tried flirting with me and when it went nowhere grew hostile,” she said.
Oiy said the man laid his complaint after seeing her on the Take Me Out dating show and recognising her. “If I was really trying to evade the law I would not be so mad as to go on TV in the first place,” she said.
Oiy said she contacted media outlets asking them to stop publicising the arrest clip. All agreed, she said, but for the Manager/ASTV. She has also spoken to police, but they stood by their claims and defended their right to release the material, saying they acted in the public interest.
Oiy, who models clothing and runs a business leasing pool villas, said the stress of the publicity and resulting attacks on social media prompted her to take a pill overdose on Facebook live last November in a quest to end it all.
She says she took 80 pills but owing to drug resistance — she had been taking the same medicine for years — she fell into a deep sleep but did no lasting damage.
By the next day, suffering from nothing more than mild dizziness and a headache, she was well enough to appear on a TV news show where she answered her critics and challenged Crime Suppression Division superintendent Pol Col Neti Wongkularb about police conduct in the case.
“I am just a farmer’s daughter, not a hi-so or dangerous figure which justifies my identity being revealed in that video,” Oiy complained.
“Even hardened criminals have their faces obscured but in this one police made no attempt to conceal my identity. What right do the police have?” she asked.
“The fraud complaint was laid by a disgruntled admirer who asked to co-invest with me. I tried returning the money but had to postpone as I was entering hospital. He also blocked me on Facebook. For the other matters related to cheques, I left money to settle them with the court, as some of those people were not willing to talk.
“That brought the cases to an end. As for two alleged outstanding cases, they were settled two years ago,” she said.
The matter concerning the cars stemmed from a misunderstanding which she was also willing to clear up. She asked Pol Col Neti if police had checked her history thoroughly before making the arrest.
While Pol Col Neti pleaded public interest, and claimed it was up to the media whether they broadcast the images, Oiy said there was only one purpose behind giving them the video — having the media spread the news.
“The CSD was acting on requests from three police stations where complaints were received,” Pol Col Neti said, adding Oiy was welcome to pay a visit and clear up the matter.
Oiy said she was now suing the
CSD and the media outlet for defamation and breaching the Computer Crimes Act. Thung Mahamek police received her complaint against the CSD and inquiries are continuing.
Impersonators come unstuck
A Phetchaburi couple who impersonated a policeman and a teacher and later branched into stealing motorcycles have been nabbed after relatives who loaned them money to advance their “careers” complained to police of fraud.
Provincial Police Region 7 last week nabbed Phakinai “Jack” Palai, 30, and his wife, Chutikarn Reingrom, 28 at a relative’s place in Klat Luang, Tha Yang, Phetchaburi, after the pair fled a warrant obtained in Hua Hin.
There, they allegedly rented 10 motorcycles from beachside vendors only to pawn them for cash, making 13,000-17,000 a bike. They first started a similar scam at Cha-am beach in Phetchaburi and later moved to Hua Hin.
Hua Hin vendors complained to police and posted details of the pair’s exploits to social media, where netizens began an online campaign to track them down. They used a third party’s ID card to rent the bikes, which they failed to return. They delivered them to a middle man, called “Noi” who arranged for them to be pawned. Upset vendors later went to Hua Hin police, who obtained a warrant.
Police found them at a rubber plantation owned by a relative, where they had fled from Hua Hin and had been raising chickens for about a week. Earlier, in a more colourful phase of their exploits, the couple preyed on relatives by impersonating a policeman (Jack) and a teacher (his wife).
Jack’s con started in 2016 when he claimed he had passed entry exams for admission to the police, and asked relatives for a loan of hundreds of thousands of baht as emoluments to help him swing a good job in the force. He posted images on Facebook of him wearing a police uniform and beside a police vehicle to convince relatives he was the real thing. In one, taken from the inside of his vehicle, he laments the fact that it is Saturday and while everyone else can take a rest, he was hard at work upholding the law.
Later he approached relatives seeking another large loan, claiming this one was for a promotion. Encouraged by the success of this con, Jack allegedly had his wife pose as a teacher, and ask relatives for a loan to advance her career. She also posted pictures of herself to social media wearing a teacher’s uniform. They did not return the money.
The couple spent profligately, drawing the attention of relatives, who eventually discovered they were fakes, and went to police. The couple fled their home in Yang Yong of Phetchaburi for Cha-am and later Hua Hin, where they embarked on their bike scam. The case continues.
Adventures of a cafe spoon
Actress Arada “Darling” Arayawuth and her elder sister have apologised after netizens caught them feeding their dog with a spoon from a city coffee shop.
The pair went before the media to apologise last week after a netizen posted images to Facebook of the pair, with dog in lap, feeding the animal ice-cream they had ordered from the shop.
They used a spoon normally available to customers, drawing a complaint from one diner, who thought it unhygienic. A staff member later asked the pair to stop, but according to the Facebook post, since deleted, one of the young women replied nonchalantly: “But my dog wants to eat.”
The incident occurred on Jan 25 at a cafe in Phahon Yothin Road, Phaya Thai. The cafe, which is in a community mall, has an outdoor area where customers can apparently bring their pets. Darling, a former member of the girl band Sugar Eyes, denied making the remark. “We apologised and when the staff member brought us a plastic spoon instead we turned it down as we realised we should not be feeding the dog,” she told the media.
Later when the couple saw the drama on social media which the post had caused they paid a return visit and offered to pay for the “damaged” spoon. The shop declined, so they left a sum of money in the staff tip box instead.
A reporter from Amarin TV who visited the shop spoke to the staff member who served the pair. She confirmed they did not raise objection to the warning, or utter the phrase ‘But my dog wants to eat”.
Darling, now an actress at Channel 3, said she and her sister had learned their lesson after being hit with a deluge of complaints on social media. The original poster who made the erroneous claims had since deleted the post, and apologised if she heard them wrongly.