Sun, sea, sand... and a sordid £5bn sex trade
SEEDY SIDE OF BRIT CROOKS’ THAI HAVEN
WITH its idyllic beaches and crystal clear blue seas, Pattaya could be the definition of paradise.
But scratch beneath the surface of this little piece of Thai heaven, and there is something much more sordid going on.
On the resort’s infamous Walking Street, where thousands of so-called bar girls ply their trade, tourists can buy T-shirts with the slogan: Good guys go to heaven, bad guys go to Pattaya.
The strip is lined with gaudy go-go bars lit with neon signs promising pole dancing, sex shows, cheap drinks and more. Women in barely there outfits and skyscraper heels offer tourists massages while signs ask: Do you like sexy ladies?
This city is at the centre of Thailand’s sex tourism industry, where women and girls are pimped for sex – often for just a few pounds – and foreign gangs cash in on the drugs and prostitution trades.
It is here that former Royal Logistic Corps soldier Reece Vella, 25, fled to escape drugs charges in the UK.
But yesterday, he was being quizzed by Thai police after a prostitute plunged to her death from his balcony. Vella, of Worcester, denies charges of causing the death of another person and theft.
In 2012, he was jailed for four years and nine months in the UK after he admitted raping a teenager.
Vella’s brother, Andrayoss, said he moved to Thailand to start a new life and get out of trouble.
VILLAINS
But in Pattaya, trouble is rarely far away. It is viewed as the new Costa del Crime, a place where Western fugitives can escape justice. Where crooks once fled to Marbella to enjoy the fruits of their life of crime, now Thailand offers everything Spain did, and more – sun, sea and sex, and officials apparently willing to turn a blind eye for the right price.
An expat who has worked in Thailand for 25 years claims: “The police are very pliable. It is an ideal location for villains. In Thailand, they can’t be touched. Britain has to beg to get an extradition.”
There are an estimated 2.8 million prostitutes in the country, with around 40,000 of them children who are forced into selling sex.
It is a lucrative business, generating around £4.5billion a year – 10% of Thailand’s GDP.
In Pattaya alone, there are more than 1,000 bars and massage parlours. It is claimed there are 27,000 prostitutes working on the city’s three-mile strip, attracting an estimated one million tourists a year. This is despite the fact that prostitution is illegal in the country. Men pay a “bar fine” of around £13 to spend time alone with a prostitute. They then come to a separate financial arrangement with the girl over what happens next. The Human Help Network Foundation Thailand charity says sources claim child prostitution is so lucrative that ships are being anchored off the coast to avoid being detected by police. And it says sex workers are not just full-time
prostitutes, but often office workers attracted by the easy money.
In 2016, the government announced a crackdown, with the country’s first female tourism minister promising to eradicate the sex industry.
But it is not just sex for sale that attracts foreigners. Cheap property, a low cost of living and year-round sunshine are a pull too.
For criminals looking to stay under the radar, it seems like the perfect haven. But it does not always end well. A year ago, British businessman Tony Kenway, 39, was shot dead as he got into his Porsche outside his gym in Pattaya.
Investigators claimed he ran a Wolf of Wall Street-style scam, which involved cold callers tricking people into handing over their savings.
Kenway, 39, originally from Southampton, had moved from the Costa del Sol to Pattaya, where he and his Thai wife Somporn lived a luxury lifestyle.
Our source said: “The easiest money to be made in the last 20 years has been internet scamming. The scammers have been making masses of money. “The easiest way to launder money is in the bar business. Most of the bars they buy into have been loss-making. The criminals pay well over the odds for them, and they become a front for criminal activity.” Along with British crooks in Thailand, Russians, Africans and Australians are also believed to be involved credit card scams, drugs, counterfeiting and the sex trade. But the expat says: “British people make up the largest part of the tourist sex industry. “And whenever the government say they are going to crack down it is absolute rubbish. “Wherever you go in Bangkok, Phuket, Pattaya it is clear to see.” For the girls, many from impoverished villages, the bright lights of Pattaya can be a huge pull. Bar girls can earn up to £114 a night, dwarfing the
Many enter the trade to take care of sick parents or look after their kids PHIL ROBERTSON ON HOW GIRLS FALL INTO INDUSTRY
minimum wage of £7 per day. But the money comes with risks. There are tales of children being tricked into selling sex, and stories of women being robbed and raped by gangs of drunken men. Phil Robertson, of Human Rights Watch in Bangkok, explains: “Prostitution in Thailand is still illegal, which means sex workers are vulnerable.
“Thailand’s labour laws don’t protect them, meaning they are forced to work long hours, sometimes all night, and have no protection against cheating bosses or violent clients.
“Many enter the trade for entirely reasonable reasons, like trying to earn money to take care of a sick parent, or a child born in a teen pregnancy.
“Many of these women hope to meet some lonely hearts foreigner who will care for them, pay their debts and support their family. But for most, it doesn’t work out that way.”