Insurance fraud scheme backfires for Australian couple
PHUKET: Kathu police have confirmed they arrested an Australian couple on Sunday night (October 30) over an attempted insurance fraud scheme.
Wednesday 2 November 2011, 10:07AM
Pol Capt Teerasak Boonsang from Kathu police station said the two tourists, Abdul Karim Al-Rajab, 31, and Zeidan Nouha, 30, had been in Phuket almost a week.
The couple went to police claiming they had all of their belongings stolen from a McDonald’s restaurant near Soi Bangla, Patong.
Police went to the area to talk with potential witnesses, but no one could recall seeing any incidents in the area.
The officers, suspecting something was awry, then went to the couple’s hotel room, where they found all of the belongings that had supposedly been ‘stolen’.
The couple admitted to making the whole thing up in an attempt to file a fake insurance claim.
The tourists appeared in court on Monday (October 31), charged with deliberately providing false information to police.
They are currently being held in the Immigration detention centre awaiting deportation to Australia.
