The chief of the Pattaya police and four of his high ranking deputies have all been transferred after a raid on Coming Bar in Soi 6, Pattaya, uncovered sex for sale and an underage sex worker.
The foreign owners are all being deported and blacklisted.
And the Bang Lamung district chief has ordered the bar shut for five years for damaging the image of tourism in Pattaya and Thailand.
Channel 7 reported yesterday that the Chonburi police chief Pol Maj-Gen Nanthachart Suphamongkhon had axed the acting head of the Pattaya police Pol Col Pongphan Wongmaneethet and four of his deputies.
The media did not say what was their immediate fate but they said that the transfer was for allowing prostitution to go on in Pattaya.
Pol Col Pongphan was one of the principals in charge during a recent exercise in Walking Street that was ridiculed after all manner of officials failed to find any evidence of prostitution or drug taking in Thailand’s most recognizable red light district.
He was also the officer pictured smiling from ear to ear when taking part in the presentation of a check for 5,000 baht to the family of a Russian tourist killed in a recent accident in Pattaya.
This exercise was slammed by Thais and expatriates alike as disgraceful and disgusting.
Channel 7 said that the foreign owners of Coming Bar in Soi 6 would all be deported and blacklisted from entering Thailand.
In earlier reports about the raid in which a 17-year-old sex worker was found it was stated that the owners were a consortium of Taiwanese, Chinese and Thai nationals.
Bang Lamung district chief Amnat Charoensri said that he had ordered the bar shut for five years and that the case had damaged the image of a tourist town (Pattaya) and the image of the country.
This was because prostitution – and underage prostitution – was found at the bar.
