Pattaya Employees Again Caught Pocketing Bribes From Chinese

Two more Pattaya city employees were fired and criminally charged for again pocketing 2,000-baht fines levied against Chinese tourists for littering.

Visanu Ketmuenwai, 27, and Krirkchai Khanthawong, 24 – who work in City Hall’s Special Operations Unit – were charged with masquerading as municipal “tessakit” police, which carries a prison term of up to a year and a 20,000-baht fine.

Two Chinese tourists and a tour guide filed a complaint that the two men demanded they pay 2,000 baht each for tossing cigarette butts on the ground at Bali Hai Pier. They paid on the spot, but did not get a receipt.

The civil servants denied the charges until shown security camera footage of the event. They then admitted pocketing the cash for themselves.

The incident is the second of its type in three months. On Aug. 1, another Special Ops staffer was fired after a Chinese tourist with a sneaky-cam caught him pocketing a 1,000 bribe from a litterbug.

A spokesman for the unit said in August that the money should have been sent to the central fund. Instead, the officer added it to his department’s “tea money” pot.

Expect Pattaya officials to throw the book at the latest two corrupt officers, as City Hall has been wringing its hands over the precipitous drop in Chinese visitors to Sin City. Officials have been planning a new 10-minute video to promote Pattaya and safe and welcoming. Yet another affront to a mainland visitor isn’t going to help their cause.