A businessman from Denmark was Monday last week severely injured and hospitalized in Pattaya with two broken heel bones and severe back injury. According to his own account of the incident, the injuries were sustained when he tried to flee a business meeting in Pattaya where he was also robbed of 420,000 Thai baht.
The Dane explains that the attack was ordered by the owner of a property that he was leasing from her and carried out by her staff and her husband. The money was brought into the meeting to pay for a renewal of the lease.
Talking to ScandAsia, the Dane explains that he had already been leasing the Pattaya property for the past two years and that the signing should have been a formality. In fact the contract was agreed upon before the meeting where he was attacked.
The Dane has written a long post on his Facebook profile explaining the incident to friends and family identifying his attackers but does not wish to appear by name in this article. Recalling the dramatic events that morning, the Dane adds that the woman is the daughter of a very wealthy family from Pattaya who owns several hotels, including the LK Metropole where the attack and robbery allegedly took place. The Dane says that this only adds to his confusion and anger seeing as the money they took from him must be a small amount to them.
They asked for cash payment
Before the meeting he had been asked to bring cash payment of THB 300,000 for the lease. He explains to ScandAsia that as he had been leasing the property for the last two years and knowing who he was dealing with, he did not suspect anything.
When he showed up at the meeting, the woman asked for an additional THB 120,000 before she would sign the contract. Eager to renew the lease, the businessman agreed and went to the bank where he withdrew the amount and then brought it back to the meeting.
At some point during the meeting he noticed that something seemed off.
“Her hands were shaking but I moved on, as I thought she just had too much coffee. In hindsight I know it was because she knew what was about to happen,” he writes on his Facebook.
“I signed all the contracts as agreed and started putting cash on the table, but she did not sign the contracts. They reached for the money and started counting it and I explained that I wanted them to sign before they could have the money.”
Caught the attack on video
Sensing that he was about to be robbed as they became threatening, he started filming the incident with his iPhone but only had the chance to film a little while before the woman sent her guards after him.
“I tried to escape but in the process I got pushed and fell down a ledge where I broke both my heel bones and a toe. After I fell down two-three meters on concrete floor, one of her guards jumped from the same height and landed on my back, causing further injury. Then two guards and the husband held me down while they stole the rest of my money and my iPhone.”
“There were 15-20 witnesses overseeing the whole incident, and luckily one of them called for the police.”
When the police arrived he managed to get his phone back in exchange for the husband’s watch which he had dropped when putting the Dane in a headlock. The phone was smashed up and the sim-card removed but he managed to retrieve the video after hooking it up to his laptop.
“The most important part of the video is of (the name of the woman) ordering her guards to chase me down – giving very clear evidence of who’s behind the assault. The video and the case is at the police station and the Danish Embassy and I hope for a quick resolution.”
He explains that his lawyer is handling the case feeling that he himself needs some distance from the incident, and that he actually does not know how far investigations are.
When asked if the incident has scarred him from doing business in Thailand he replies:
“I live in Bangkok, this is my home. But I will seriously consider how I do my business in the future and who I do them with.”
He has now been discharged from the hospital but will be spending the next six to eight weeks in a wheelchair.
Still investigating
The Pattaya police confirms to ScandAsia that there was an incident last Monday involving the Dane and several persons on the location where the assault took place and that they are investigation the case. ScandAsia has not been able to get in touch with the Police Officer in charge of preparing the case for prosecution to ask for more details.
