Jakkree Thummee, 42, originally from Bangkok, filed the formal complaint with Pol Lt Col Kittiphong Noupeng of the Cherng Talay Police at about 8pm on Saturday (Feb 17).
Mr Chakkri explained in his complaint that he had just dropped off passengers in Cherng Talay when at about 2:30am that day he received an order through the Grab app to pick up new passengers from in front of the club.
When he arrived the passengers had yet to exit the club, so he parked and waited for them. His car is a fully legal taxi bearing green licence plates and the stickers as mandated by the Phuket Land Transport Office (PLTO).
However, as a green plate taxi, it does not feature the stickers also mandated by the PLTO expressly identifying the car as a legally registered taxi app vehicle.
The PLTO has never clarified whether or not legally registered green-plate taxis using taxi apps to provide services are supposed to carry both sets of stickers. So far the PLTO has considered such taxi vehicles as mutually exclusive.
Regardless, while Mr Jakkree was waiting in his taxi, a tuk-tuk arrived and blocked his exit while a group of four men approached the vehicle. One of the four men, described as a large man, knocked on the driver’s window and threatened Mr Jakkree and invited him to, “Come outside and clear things up with me.”
While the men continued to threaten him, Mr Jakkree became afraid for his safety and called 191 to report the incident, but by the time police had arrived the group of men had fled the scene.
Mr Jakkree returned home to think about what had just happened. Despite his fear of reprisal against him, he decided to file a complaint with police.
Police have accepted the case and at last report said they were investigating the incident.
The incident on Saturday follows taxi queue drivers near the front of the Maya Beach Club beating a fully legal Grab taxi driver in December.
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