Scottish guest house owner in Hua Hin deported

[advocate]

It would be unusual for a lawyer to put their career at risk by lying for a client. Lawyers can be criminally prosecuted for lying and also disbarred.

The lawyer is morally and legally obligated to submit and argue any alternate explanation of the circumstances which may exonerate a client. A lawyer can advance any alternate theory of the case unless they know it to be untrue.

Not all of those charged are guilty. If you are charged and you are not guilty, you want the most complete defence possible.

Besides, if an incompetant lawyer fails to argue a vaild defence, then that is grounds for an appeal, and that costs everyone who pays taxes money.

At least if we know the perp has had a fair trial, and found guilty, that they deserve condemnation.

I'm not defending convicted criminals, just pointing out the obvious.

[caller]

Seems a good result for the town and a message to others on the periphery that perhaps they haven't found the safe haven they thought they had?

[kendo]

The Squealing Pig guest house doe's it exist, i haven't seen the place around town.

Kendo.

[JimmyGreaves]

The Squealing Pig guest house doe's it exist, i haven't seen the place around town.

Kendo.

Read page 1

[sateeb]

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Squea ... 1875050266

[margaretcarnes]

Seems a good result for the town and a message to others on the periphery that perhaps they haven't found the safe haven they thought they had?

Yes - provided of course that the UKBA don't get totally peed off with the Thai 'system' and withdraw their collaboration?

[johnnyk]

His lawyer, Theo Kassimatis, said: "It was stupid, momentarily stupid. It was opportunistic ... and out of character."

dont these lawyers have any concience seems to me he is a career crim

I'm afraid criminal defence lawyers can't really afford to have consciences Sarge! To be fair they usually do know when a client is guilty - and hate to have the wool pulled over their eyes - but earn their money by mitigating.
What strikes me as typical in this case is the way a confidential letter from the UKBA has been leaked to the press. Presumably the UKBA is working with the best intentions and in good faith with Thailand, only to find they are dealing with, in this case at least, a set of numpties. Little wonder there are so many alleged foreign criminals on the run in the LOS.
As for Alty - if he is guilty he probably feels a damn sight safer now in the UK, where another set of numpties maybe don't have the authority to do him on crimes which apparently don't have anything to do with his home country.

Long ago when I was younger and een more foolish than now I got busted. The first thing I was asked by my lawyer was, "Did you do it?" Lawyer-client privilege means the perp can answer honestly. The lawyer told me he wanted to know so "it doesn't bite me in the ass later."
Lawyers are paid to get their client off. Period. It's their job, conscience has nothing to do with it. In a democracy this is bedrock stuff.

[Roel]

I think this answer from Yahoo! Answers hit the nail on the head:

they aren't under oath, although ethically they are not supposed to lie, just represent their client to the best of their ability. they can be convicted of subornation of perjury, which is a crime of persuading others who are under oath to commit perjury.

Easy to spot the contradiction between 'not supposed to lie' and 'represent their client to the best of their ability'.

[Takiap]

So I assume this guy has never lost his passport, and that he has important connections in all the right places?


Could it not be that he lost his passport at some point, and that it was then doctored and used by someone else, who then sold it on to someone else, and so on, and so on? Perhaps he volunteered to return to the UK simply because he knows he'll get fair treatment their. Can you blame him? I doubt there's a single forum member who hasn't at some point questioned the Thai legal system. If I were arrested for a crime I didn't commit, I would also want out.


I'm certainly not saying he IS innocent, but I also don't think he should be disemboweled just yet.

[STEVE G]

I'm certainly not saying he IS innocent,...

Under Thai immigration law, they can just deport him anyway on the basis of his criminal record:

"11. According to the Immigration Act of Thailand B.E. 2522 (1979), foreigners who fall into any of the following categories are prohibited to enter Thailand:

(6) Having been imprisoned by judgment of the Thai Court; or by lawful injunction or judgment of the Court of a foreign country, except for when the penalty is for a petty offence, or negligence, or is provided for as an exception by the Ministerial Regulations."