Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing sort of foreigners behaving badly, and also illegal work in Thailand, that's the thrust of this video. I urge those who are watching this video, if you are a foreigner especially, and you're concerned about work authorization, this is a good video to watch; there's going to be a lot of insight in here. 

This initially came upon my radar via Pure Guava over on x.com, so over on formerly Twitter, @pureguava10300, quoting directly: "Thai authorities have arrested a British national accused of running illegal bird watching tours for foreign tourists in Samut Songkhram and Phetchaburi, following complaints from licensed Thai guides. The arrest was carried out after a multi-day tour across key wildlife sites between December 14 and 18. The Department of Tourism said the suspect, identified as Mr. Nick, was found guiding a group of 10 foreign tourists without a valid tour license or Work Permit. He now faces charges under Thailand's tourism and labour laws, with penalties including possible imprisonment and fines. Officials stressed the action is part of ongoing enforcement to protect Thai tour guides and maintain standards in the tourism sector, urging the public to report suspected illegal tour activities." And he is citing ASEAN NOW. 

So, that initially came upon my radar and I was going to make a video and title it Oh, Illegal Bird Watching Tours, because it seemed like this was somebody who was doing at first glance like, oh this was something rather innocuous and maybe it was just somebody showing his friends around Thailand or something. How do they know it was somebody who was running an illegal business? Well it gets even deeper. Leave it to the Thai Examiner, thaiexaminer.com, to make a rather exhaustive analysis of this under the article titled: Brit online tour operator in Thailand arrested by police and charged with running an illegal business. Yeah, tour operations in Thailand are explicitly reserved to Thais and among the reserved occupations, tourism is high on the list. Don't mess around in this if you're a foreigner, and don't play the game, "oh I'm a whatever," no, they can tell, and as you will see, I urge those who are watching this video, read the Thai Examiner article because - I put up the Pure Guava one because when this first came out, first of all that was where I first heard the story, and then it seemed more innocuous than it turned out to be. The Thais did an exhaustive investigation into this, and let's just quote directly: "British online tour operator arrested in Bangkok after police say he ran illegal National Park tours for over a decade. Officers estimate he cost Thailand more than B10 million. The 53-year-old sold 18-day trips online, led tours himself, but now faces jail on criminal charges." Quoting further: "Police in Bangkok have arrested a 53-year-old British man accused of causing B10 million in losses to Thailand's foreign tourism industry over a decade. The man, identified by police as Mr. Mark or Mr. Nicholas, sold 18-day specialized tours through a website operated outside Thailand, charging about B100,000 per guest, excluding airfares. Investigators tracked him for months," - read this article. It goes into exhaustive detail. I mean they did undercover investigations on this guy; they are not messing around and they have the resources. That's the important thing. If you're looking to come work in Thailand, work in an industry you're legally able to do so and get your Work Permit; they're not messing around with this anymore.

Quoting further: "Investigators tracked him for months, gathering digital evidence of his activities at hotels, venues, and National Park entry points across five provinces. He has been provisionally charged with operating an unlicensed tour business and illegally working in Thailand, with additional charges under consideration. He faces up to 2 years in prison and remains in custody." He's not out on bail, okay. 

I can't stress this enough. I know people don't want to hear this message, but I'm not making it like for my health. I'm trying to keep people from causing themselves problems and it's very easy to get complacent about things and look, build up a business and things that basically is then used as evidence against you down the road. That's the thing that all these, it's funny, it's basically normalcy bias sort of in action, if you will. People think that because they're not getting caught, even though they are explicitly violating Thai Law, that they're just not going to get caught and they continue to do it, and they build up their operations and things until it all comes crashing down in a very bad way. I don't really wish ill on this person, but they were operating illegally and it's very clear, tourism is restricted explicitly to Thai nationals. And to build up something big enough that the law enforcement officers had an opportunity to track it, trace it across multiple provinces and over a decade, this person is probably facing some serious penalties and I can pretty well assure folks watching this video, he's never going to be doing this again one way or the other, because no matter what happens I expect he's going to be deported and blacklisted. 

So the thing to take away from this video is if you're going to work in Thailand, do it right. Engage in something that one, foreigners are able to engage in. And then, at the same time obtain a Work Permit. Again, not only was this guy engaging in tourism business, which is a big No-No, but also, he's charged with illegally working in Thailand, which I would presume that means he had no Work Permit. Now I don't know. I don't know the underlying facts in the given case, but that would be my presumption. He was just completely operating outside of the law. That being said, it remains to be seen how this all plays out, so we will certainly be keeping you updated on this channel as the situation evolves.