Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing a foreigner who managed to remain in Thailand on a dead man's passport for almost a decade or around a decade. I thought of making this video after reading a recent posting from Pure Guava over on X, that is @PureGuava10300, under the headline: Irish fugitive jailed in Thailand after decade using dead man's passport. Quoting directly: "An Irish national wanted over alleged drug offences in Australia has been sentenced in Thailand to 18 years in prison after living for nearly 10 years under the identity of a deceased man. Authorities say Paul Casey, 46, fled Sydney on drug charges and used a forged Irish passport to evade arrest. He ran a business on Koh Phangan before being identified by tourists who recognized him from Australia. Thai Police later identified him through fingerprint checks and international coordination. He was arrested at a hotel in Hua Hin, where he had been living with his Thai girlfriend and was convicted this month of passport forgery, using a fake passport and long-term over staying. Thai Courts handed down a lengthy 30-year prison term, citing the seriousness of the offences and their impact on national security. However, it was reduced to 18 years due to Casey's guilty plea."

Yeah, I mean I thought of calling this Foreigners Behaving Badly, but one, well obviously passport forgery and these things not good, but just a degree of respect for the ability to utilize the passport for over a decade in this very precarious posture I guess, not a tip of the hat, but just sort of a recognition of ‘that's a feat, that's a feat’. From a guy that is an Immigration Attorney that deals with matters pertain to Thai immigration US Immigration all the time, when you hear that some guy managed to evade arrest by using a forged passport for over a decade, your ears perk up a little bit and you say "hey wow, that's noteworthy!" 

That said, again this person's been apprehended in Thailand. I mean the moral of the story if you will, don't use forged documentation because it could lead to bigger problems, and in this person's situation I'm not sure what the results would have been had they ended up back in Australia for whatever reason, but 18 years in Thai jail, that's a significant sentence. So at the end of the day, yeah, he got 10 years of borrowed time but I wouldn't say it actually comes out in the wash if you will. That said, again, this is also evidence of the fact that Thai Immigration is increasingly assiduous and proactive with regard to Immigration matters and it goes further to show that the paradigm shift that started some 12 years ago where we went from immigration being thought of as primarily an administrative issue, it moved to being thought of as a Law Enforcement issue to now it's thought of as a national security issue in and of itself. It shows how this proactivity or this proactive action if you will, from Thai Immigration has evolved based on the way that the policy thinking behind the actual law enforcement activity has evolved as well. 

Again, the thing to take away from this video is Thai Immigration isn't messing around. That being said, we will certainly keep people updated on this channel as the situation evolves.