Mekong

As I stated, Thailand is one of the few jurisdictions where a Plaintiff may choose to pursue a Criminal Case directly without involving the authorities. In the UK, my country of origin, criminal offenses have to be reported to the Police, the Police collect the evidence and then chose if to present evidence to CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) who decide whether to charge the accused party and then they become the defendant. I am sure it is similar in the US except they use the terms Attorney General and Public Prosecutor. So, the fact that a Plaintiff and his / her lawyer can be counter sued is a safeguard mechanism against malicious or frivolous Criminal Charges being brought before the court as a private prosecution, hence the reason her lawyer is now beginning to realise that I do have the evidence or I would not have taken it so far and am still pursuing it. Why Private as opposed to Public some may ask, well to be brutally honest I do not trust the Police in Thailand, corruption operates at all levels in Thailand and the BiB are not immune to turning a blind eye for Tea Money or if influenced by people of an assumed higher standing in Thai society. I am a lone farang prosecuting my soon to be ex who has relatives holding both Retired and Current high ranking government positions, I would have had a snowball in hells chance if I went the public prosecution route at least some chance of justice going private. On the Civil cases, 2-3 weeks ago I had found more evidence of an additional 2 Million to sue her for, In Civil cases the Plaintiff has to pay 2% of the sum being sued for to the court which is paid back if court rules in Plaintiffs favour. Civil code states that the 2% has to be paid within 7 days of the claim being made, of course her lawyer objected to my late change of indictment, it is his job to defend her, and made the request that the court rejected my additional claims. I had pre-empted his reaction and had the required 40K on my person so my lawyer asked "would it be OK if we paid the fee's now", Judge ruled that if the 2% could be paid on the spot the 2 Million would be added. 10 Minute adjournment a dash to the court accounts department and we had the receipt, the look on her lawyers face was priceless. I don't profess to being a legal beagle but I have been involved in numerous Contractual disputes over the years, Disputes between client, whom I usually am consultant for, and Contractor that have gone to litigation I have been able to support the Clients Contracts Administrator in such cases with evidence, and people think engineering is all about slide rules. I was also very careful to make sure that email communications with her were only from my gmail account but addressed to her business email address, gmail is POP3 and can only be used as secondary evidence to support a claim, her corporate account is IMAP and Internet Message Access Protocol emails can be submitted as primary evidence which means anything I may have written in an email is inadmissible evidence without something to support it whereas anything she wrote to me is admissible. Her pride of using her corporate account will be part of her downfall. It's all rather good fun actually!

So, some movies have the same affect on you as watching recent Arsenal displays

Time for another update, Like most things in Thailand the Legal System is a drawn out and protracted process. On Monday I had the first hearing in the Criminal Case against her, Thailand is one of the few Judicial Systems in the world where a private prosecution can be taken out for a "Compoundable Criminal Offense", but unlike the in the west Criminal hearings are not simple Plaintiff v Defendant Trials but take on 4 steps. Step 1 Plaintiff charges Defendant at Criminal Court and Judge rules if there is a case to answer. DONE Step 2 Plaintiff and Defendants Lawyers review the Plaintiffs indictment at Criminal Court and Judge decides whether to proceed. DONE (Last Monday) Step 3 Plaintiff and any witnesses called present prosecution evidence before the Criminal Court and will be cross examined by Defendants lawyer. Judgement will be made on whether or not the evidence is strong enough for the Defendant to be charged. That is scheduled for 6th March. Mekong's big day out. Step 4 If Defendant is charged based on step 3, then summoned to Criminal Court to either plead guilty or to defend charges, if guilty plea is entered then minimal penalty will most likely be imposed, if she tries to defend the charges and is found Guilty then mid to upper scale penalty is more likely, which due to severity of charges will be a minimum of a suspended sentence. Criminal offenses are covered by the Thai Penal Code and have to follow the Criminal Procedure Code of Thailand So, that is the Criminal case underway. Civil Case 1 is the main "Petition for Divorce" and division of Joint and Marital assets, pre hearing for that is scheduled for 14th February Civil Case 2 is "Infringement Damages" this relates to her throwing me out of the house and shipping all my belongings back to UK, destroying my financial records, loss of earnings fighting the case etc etc, pre hearing on 5th March. I must admit her lawyer looked pretty worried on Monday, for a Start pursuing a private Criminal Prosecution one needs to be 100% sure, if the Courts rule that the prosecution is unfounded I am leaving myself open to counter prosecution and so is my lawyer, If I am in the wrong I could be deported and my lawyer could lose his license and face a custodial sentence so her lawyer is pretty sure now that we do have a case for her to answer. The interesting thing is that as the Plaintiff I have not yet had to show the Defendant what evidence I do have and I know he is itching to see what I do have. I cannot wait to see the look on his face when he finally gets to see it. He asked my lawyer, "Will you be making any further charges" to which he replied, "NO, Not at the Moment", the look on his face was priceless. If I win my cases and she is ordered by the courts to pay me back and she states that she does not have the funds then the fiscal paper chase starts, anyone found to be holding property or money for her can also be prosecuted as accessory to misappropriation and handling stolen goods, which are criminal charges in themselves, once I have court order that allows me to trace funds I maybe able to implicate all of her family, interesting weeks and months ahead. There is an undercurrent in Gobbies "Epic Countdown" Thread about how to stay busy in Thailand and what else apart from bars. Well to be honest I have spent a lot of my time pursuing my case, finding the evidence, reading up on Thai Criminal and Civil Law statutes and procedures etc. On top of that, as I mentioned in another thread I have also attained my Masters Degree via distant learning, I have another course lined up in BKK in May to get me more qualifications in Functional Safety Engineering with the option of using the company I set up last year as Thai operational arm of a group of Global Consultants if I pass the course. More updates to follow as and when. Kong

George Michael has sympathised with the captain of the stricken Italian liner Costa Concordia. He said 'I'm often left abandoned and lying on my side with a badly damaged bottom after a nights cruising.

Reminds me of this old chestnut, apologies if it has been posted before. At the end of the tax year, the Tax Office sent an inspector to audit the books of a Synagogue. While he was checking the books he turned to the Rabbi and said, ‘I notice you buy a lot of candles. What do you do with the candle drippings?’ ‘Good question,’ noted the Rabbi. ‘We save them up and send them back to the candle makers, and every now and then they send us a free box of candles.’ ‘Oh,’ replied the auditor, somewhat disappointed that his unusual question had a practical answer. But on he went, in his obnoxious way: ‘What about all these bread-wafer purchases? What do you do with the crumbs?’ ‘Ah, yes,’ replied the Rabbi, realising that the inspector was trying to trap him with an unanswerable question. ‘We collect them and send them back to the manufacturers, and every now and then they send us a free box of bread-wafers.’ ‘I see,’ replied the auditor, thinking hard about how he could fluster the know-it-all Rabbi. ‘Well, Rabbi,’ he went on, ‘what do you do with all the leftover foreskins from the circumcisions you perform?’ ‘Here, too, we do not waste,’ answered the Rabbi. ‘What we do is save all the foreskins and send them to the Tax Office, and about once a year they send us a complete dick.’

Not as bad as it seems. All criminal cases are against her,as a expat in a strange land I play it whiter than white. Again I will refrain from going into the actual details but once everything his resolved I may have a tale to tell. Kong

Things are going to drag on for quite a bit longer just now, it is as if she is spreading it out hoping my visa will expire before the actual hearing, little does she know I have my own Work Permit and a business visa until Nov 2012. I keep suing her on a weekly basis, the cost is 2% or 20,000 Baht / Million, plus her father and brother are both co-defendants. Last Monday in court was entertaining, her Lawyer was getting mouthy with the Judge and was told in no uncertain terms to cool it or face an hour os so in the cells, he soon shut up. Criminal hearing is now set for late January with Civil Hearing in mid February so only another 8 weeks to wait

Two priests at a Bucking Bronco contest. The first priest hardly lasts 30 seconds. But the second priest lasts well over 2 minutes and walks away with the prize money. The first priest says "I don't know how you do it.. "The second replies "One of my choirboys is Epileptic"...

Becoming a Board Sponsor increases your online storage capacity.

Not much to update, she didn't show up at Dusit Court last week excuse being "Lawyers house flooded" She made counter sue against me claiming I abandoned her, not surprised she tried this since under Thai law 12 abandonment and divorce is granted and she gets everything. She forgets the fact she flew to Madrid to see me October 2543 and I have copy of her eticket, photos in Madrid and a scan of her entry stamp, stupid bitch! Criminal hearing in 2 weeks, I have to present evidence in Thai at Ratchada Criminal Court, biggest test to date of my linguistic skills, next civil hearing is early December. Stay tuned

Spot on TH. Summer of '76 was when I read it, the first "Grown Up Book" I read as a 12 year old. It was a typical British Summer Holiday, stuck in a Caravan on a Rainy day bored shitless and I was hooked from the first page to the last, it was the novel that got me into reading books. The movie was not a patch on how I saw it in my own mind whilst reading the novel and ever since I have baulked against watching movie dramatizations of good novels I have read, e.g. Tom Clancy comes to mind immediately. The reason I remember '76 Thin Lizzy "Boys are Back in Town" was getting heavy airplay on the radio that summer.

Jimmy Savile has now left this planet My link

As stated a few days ago, I will post update when everything is resolved for the moment I will not say anything more about it on public forums.

YES! Her registered address in Thailand is a still at a family home in Bang Sue where all court papers are sent to, no excuse for floods. For the Civil case, in which I am suing her for divorce, if she or her legal representative fail to show the courts will rule in my favour in her absence. For the Criminal cases the Judge has accepted preliminary evidence from my lawyer and I have a hearing set for late November to present evidence, she does not have to attend but if not it is her only chance to defend herself against the charges and if the court accepts the evidence there will be a warrant issued for her.

Very sad news in deed. I have met Dan on 2-3 occasions in the UK, one of my brother in law's is Co-Director of Wheldons a company founded by Dan's father who were his original sponsors in his early years of racing in the UK before he decided to embark on his indie career. Bro in Law and my Sister have been to the states many times with his parents watching him race, were there for both his Indie 500 victories.

OK time for an update. I am still alive no death threats as of yet I cannot say too much due to impending court cases within the next 6 weeks, once everything is resolved I will post a full update.

Sure it was xXx (Triple X)

Probably Rammstein Feuer Frei (Fire at will, Literally Free Fire in English) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gwQRsEzs8Q

Hence the reason I watched it this morning. As soon as I heard about his passing I was straight onto u-torrent and 36 minutes later watching the movie, downloaded on my Macbook Pro, played on the Macbook but viewed on big screen TV via wifi

Pirates of Silicon Valley

Things have taken on a new twist My divorce lawyer has offered to marry me so I can get a non imm O visa, pure business, I may take her up on the proposal Who the hell gets wed to their lawyer for a visa, ME haha, this is getting weirder each day

Deffo non fiction but at times I wish it was Bloody hard work going thru divorce in a foreign country

Still alive and kicking and stayed out of jail. Been busy the past few days with apartment hunting, moving in shopping for bedding, cutlery and crockery etc, such an exciting life.

Well for the first time in nine months I am back in Bangkok and it feels great, staying at S31 for a few nights until I get an apartment sorted. Some cracking deals to be had here, OK 3400 Baht / night might seem rxcessive bit for a Duplex room (Living Room downstairs / Bedroom upstairs) in a 5 Star Hotel 80 Euros / Night is not bad at all. I am going to give her one last chance to do things amicable first I need to get a new Thai Sim Card so she wont recognise the number and may actually answer my call, I will give her 72 hours to meet me and come to mutual terms, if we cannot come to agreement then legal proceedings begin. I will post regular updates but if you dont hear from me for a couple of weeks that means Flash was correct bout the hitman.