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Three drivers invited to surrender to answer assault charges OLD LOGO By The Phuket News staff
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amala police have secured arrest warrants for three taxi drivers allegedly involved in last Sunday’s violence in front of the Cape Sienna hotel. The three have now been invited to surrender to police to answer assault charges. The three were identified from police mugshots by Preecha Choowong, 37, a driver from the Kok Chang elephant trekking company, who was beaten up by five drivers from a taxi rank in front of the hotel. The attack began when he arrived at the hotel shortly after midday on Sunday to pick up a couple who had booked an elephant ride. M r Preecha told T he Phuket News that after the guests got into his car, he was blocked by a taxi from a group that claims the hotel as its exclusive territory. The driver of the taxi yanked open Mr Preecha’s door and started to punch him. He tried to pull Mr Preecha from the car but was prevented from doing so because Mr Preecha had buckled up. The guests, Australians Glenn and Deirdre Dawson, who own a hotel in Lombok, Indonesia, got out of the car and tried to stop the attack but were told by the taxi drivers, “Tourists, f*** off”. The Dawsons fled back into the hotel and Mr Preecha managed to steer his car past the blocking taxi. As he drove away one of the gang flung an iron pipe which bounced off the windscreen, smashing it. M r Preecha d rove to
Fishermen protest over beach threats.
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9/11 – 10 years on.
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Knights in the eye of the Storm. Preecha Choowong fills in a complaint after the attack. Fearing his attackers, he asked that his face not be shown in the photograph. Patong Hospital to get his wounds attended to and then to Kamala Police station to file a complaint. He told The Phuket News, “I’ve been threatened before outside this hotel. They said things like, ‘You again? We told you not to come here again.’ But it’s my job to collect guests. I think it’s totally legal for me to pick people up. I don’t see why they had to beat me up like this.” He added, “I’m going to pursue this through the law.”
Mr Dawson told The Phuket News, “We really enjoyed our stay in Phuket until today. Now we probably will never return due to this incident. “Maybe it was only two tourists involved this time, but it will keep happening and slowly but surely Phuket will drop off the tourist destination map. “In Indonesia we don’t have taxi problems as all the taxis are metered and are from big companies. Maybe they need to do this here and
get rid of the private car thing altogether; it clearly does not work.” A Kamala police officer told The Phuket News that there was a similar incident about a year ago. The attackers involved had been fined. Mr Preecha confirmed that his visit to Cape Sienna to collect an Australian couple was totally legal, as he had a voucher with him from the trekking company. He wore a company T-shirt, and his car has a company sticker.
However, Tan, a leader of the taxi drivers along Millionaires’ Mile, told The Phuket News, “It was the driver from Kok Chang who was in the wrong as he didn’t follow the rules.” According to the rules invented by the island’s taxi drivers, a driver may not pick up passengers from an area he is not based in. The rule exists to prevent conflict between taxi drivers in different areas, Mr Tan explained. Continued page 2
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