Holiday in hell for falsely accused Briton

Simon Burrowes, 44, from Wembley, London, admitted that he swore at Immigration authorities, in an incident at Phuket Airport last January, after his flight - for which he had a non-refundable ticket - left without him. He said he may have made derogatory references about immigration officials and Thailand, but he hoped immigration police would understand why he was angry and not detain him indefinitely. He had already had to give up his flat in London because he cannot pay the rent.

Burrows, a martial arts expert had just been on a working holiday to Phuket, accompanying former British kick-boxing champion Matthew Nagle as his trainer. Both were studying muay Thai in Phuket. However, on the day of departure when the two men went through the immigration channel, Simon, a black person, whose father was born in Guyana, was detained and accused of having a false passport.

 Burrowes complained that as the minutes passed by, an official just stared at his passport with a magnifying glass. He was annoyed, he said, because he knew there was nothing wrong with his passport, he had a completely clean record, and his flight was about to leave without him.

 "The officials kept telling me, don't worry your flight will not leave without our permission, but it did. I did lose my temper, but a lot of people would have done under similar circumstances," he said.

He admitted grabbing his passport storming back into the airport foyer and demanding to see the head of immigration. After being interrogated for another two hours, he said he was charged with travelling under a false passport and taken to the nearest police station. His case was not helped by an official from the British Embassy who spoke to Phuket police the same Friday morning saying they could find no record of his passport being issued.

 "I begged embassy officials to double check. I knew my passport was legal. I had been using it for ten years. But the embassy closed at lunchtime on the Friday and all they could do was prioritise the matter the following week. They knew I would have to go to jail."

It took three working days for the British Embassy to confirm Burrowes' passport was genuine. But when they finally told him in Phuket prison 11 days after his arrest, they informed him that Thai Immigration Police were going ahead with charges of insulting a uniformed official.

 Burrowes said he was beaten with a leather strap by a policeman as he was led to court, and was unable to raise bail because he had spent all his holiday money. As a result he was imprisoned in Phuket for three weeks, sharing a space 126 x 52cms with over 100 other prisoners, until money could be sent to him. His first trial date is set for April 27. In Thailand's antiquated legal system, the case could last a year.

 "Some wonderful kind hearted local people are looking after me, and people who have read about my case have been very kind too," added Burrowes. "That's a blessing."

 A British Embassy spokesman said: "The validity of Mr Burrowes' passport was resolved within three working days. We proceeded to check the validity of the passport immediately upon being informed by the police of his arrest on the Friday."

 Here is the link to the Help Simon website: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=53934288860; http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=53934288860&ref=mf&ref=mf

ANDREW DRUMMOND

BANGKOK

When will cabbies learn where they are going?

Re: "Taken for a ride before we can all wear a smile", Streetwise, March 20.

I read your article about taxis in Bangkok. I have been coming to Thailand and Bangkok for 24 years. Nothing has changed except there are more taxis. If half of the cabs were taken off the streets, there would be still 50 per cent too many. Then of course, there's the attitude of cab drivers in Bangkok. Usually, getting a taxi meant that you stopped the cab, jumped in and told the cabby where to take you. Here, they specialise in where they want to go.  But a big question is why more of your reporters are not spending time talking about the lousy sidewalks and horrible drivers. Whoever is in charge of repairing the sidewalks in Bangkok should be fired and then sent to jail. But reporters are all talking about Thaksin. In fact, more print space is used for his antics than anything else.

RICHARD BERGMAN

BANGKOK