Brit caught for 2-year Phuket overstay, and dope

PHUKET: Immigration police this morning arrested 45-year-old British man, Stephen Peering, on charges of exceeding his permit to stay by two years, and possession of marijuana.



By Naraporn Tuarob

Monday 13 May 2013, 04:55PM

Peering, front centre, with Phuket Immigration Police.

Pol Capt Angkarn Yasanop told The Phuket News the police received information that a British man was living illegally in Kok Chang Mansion in Tai Na Rd, Karon.

“When we arrived there we found him walking around the mansion so we asked him for his passport. He said it was in his room. But when we got to his room he acted nervously, and told us that he had lost his passport.

“We smelled something like marijuana so we asked him to allow us to search his room and found a bag of marijuana inside a drawer. But it was a tiny bag.” They also found his passport, which had long expired.

Checks showed that Peering arrived in Thailand from Myanmar via the Mae Sai Immigration Checkpoint in Chiang Rai on February 21, 2011. He was granted a two-week tourist visa, which expired on March 7, 2011.

Since then he had not left the country. He was sent to Karon Police Station to be charged.