Transcript of the above video:

As the title of this video suggests, it appears that another foreigner here in Thailand has been arrested and charged in connection with working illegally here in the Kingdom. I thought of making this video after getting a recent article from the Phuket News that is thephuketnews.com, the article is titled: Russian caught working illegally as motorbike driving instructor. Yeah a lot going on with this. Look, driving instructor, specifically Inland Transportation - that's even mentioned specifically in the US-Thai Treaty of Amity as something that is exempted from the provisions of the Treaty of Amity. For those who are unaware, the American Treaty of Amity allows Americans to do business under a company here in Thailand with 100% American ownership and receive "National Treatment", so they don't have to deal with the Foreign Business Act. But setting that aside, even under that Treaty, Inland transportation in any form is viewed as a highly restricted occupation, restricted to Thai nationals only. Foreign nationals engaging in anything even remotely resembling Inland transportation, are going to find themselves in some problems. 

Quoting directly: "Acting on a tip-off," - that is notable. Again there are new apps available that allow the general public here in Thailand to interact with the Immigration and Law Enforcement apparatuses and they are. I have especially noticed this in a few articles we have written about, about Phuket, excuse me, not written about, articles we have discussed on this channel regarding Phuket and how the locals down in Phuket seem to be especially zealous about tipping off Thai Law Enforcement to foreigners working illegally, so bear that in mind. Again, quoting directly: "Acting on a tip-off, officers began investigating the motorbike riding lessons provided which were advertised on Instagram." Quoting further: "Officers then arrived at the parking lot of the now defunct floating market in Kathu and arrested 29-year-old Russian national". I am going to leave names out of this. Quoting further, I'm just going to say: "He wheeled the Honda Scoopy into a small room where officers found orange and red cones used to set out a training course." Quoting further: "The woman told police she paid," and there was some customer involved, "..paid 2,000 baht for the training lessons which lasted 3 days. She had found the services by searching online. This person was taken to Kathu Police Station and charged with working without a Work Permit." So that's the charge. I expect that person is going to find themselves in a situation where they are very likely possibly going to be deported. Real problems here. 

I mean again this is a precluded occupation. Again, there are Thai instructors out there to assist folks with driving instruction and let's be clear, Thai Authorities consider it well within their remit, well within their mandate to continue protecting that sector of the Thai labour market. I can't stress this enough. I hear this stuff all the time from foreigners where they say "oh they don't care about this or that; they only care about somebody taking a Thai job." No, that's not what they care about. What they care about is only Thai nationals are allowed to work in Thailand without authorization; only Thais have that inherent right. Foreign nationals don't have that, and that's the issue. If you want to work in Thailand, you have to go through the proper procedures. You need to get a Work Permit; you need to maintain proper status and part and parcel of getting that Work Permit is you have to remain outside of restricted occupations to Thais. Again, Inland transportation is one of these things - not unlike land ownership or land trading - that Thais take very, very seriously and they zealously guard. 

So the thing to take away from this video is if you are looking to come to Thailand and live and work here, get in line with appropriate laws, remain in compliance with Thai Work Permit regulations and also obtain a Work Permit; that's the biggest issue. On top of everything else, this person didn't even get a Work Permit. Even if they had had one, they would have still had problems with restricted occupations but they didn't even get a Work Permit in the first place.