An 8 Million Baht debt was enough to order the hit on Tony Kenway
Tony Kenway, the computer programmer murdered last month in his Porsche in Pattaya, was killed over an eight million baht debt.
Now it has emerged that Mr Kenway had been working on a website for a football betting operation, reported Manager Online.
Thai police who have been investigating the murder in Phnom Phen said the man arrested there called Toby was behind the killing.
Police say that he had met with Mr Kenway on two occasions to settle the matter of the debt but no agreement could be reached. He then ordered the killing of his former friend, it is alleged.
They say they have a witness who told them Toby had previously ordered Mr Kenway to be killed.
A police team headed by Suchart Theerasawat is due back in Bangkok today Friday when a news conference will give more details.
Manager reported that police at the highest level had contacted their counterparts in Cambodia after two suspects in the shooting fled across the border.
Shooter Abel Bonito and motorcycle getaway driver Miles Turner remain at large.
But an arrest was made in the Cambodian capital of a UK national called Toby earlier in the week. Information from another Briton named only as “Billion” (name transliterated from Thai) indicated that Toby was owed 8 million baht by the victim who refused to repay the money.
Police told Manager that Mr Kenway was one of ten shady UK mafia figures operating in Pattaya. He targeted only people from the UK in his scams and left the Thais alone, they said. He didn’t dare target the locals, said police.
Police said that he had gained his wealth from call center scams directed against his own people and then used this money for other projects.
His lavish “Mr Big” lifestyle attracted people to him to invest money in these projects. Mr Kenway owned three houses in Pattaya where he lived with his Thai wife and children.
In a new development that may have a bearing on the case police said that Mr Kenway had designed a website for a football betting racket.
He was shot dead with a bullet to the head as he sat in his red Porsche Cayenne outside the Sanit Sports Club in Pong district on January 24th.
Credit: Manager Online
