Paul Joyce appeared to be another expat living in Thailand. Thai wife, some kids and all. Turned out the 41-year old English native was also your not-so-average criminal.
As it turned out, he had fled the United Kingdom years ago after allegedly smuggling THB64 million in cigarettes, at least until last week when the long arm of the law caught up him after looking in nearly every place he wasn’t.
Joyce, who fled to Thailand after his accomplices started going down in 2008, was also wanted for failing to pay his taxes.
After receiving confirmation from British officials that Joyce was indeed hiding in Thailand, local police jumped on the case to find him.
That turned out to be a much bigger job than anyone thought, according to Bangkok Post’s Wassayos Ngamkham.
They initially thought Joyce was southeast of Bangkok in Chonburi province.
The man in charge of the case, police Col. Somkiat Kaeowiset, thought Joyce would be easy to find because he seemed like the type who wouldn’t know how to cover his tracks – they even had his address. But boy was Somkiat wrong.
When officials arrived at the address, the Brit was nowhere to be found.
Police discovered he often traveled in and out of the country, so they went to Immigration authorities who told them he was staying in the capital in a hotel on Sukhumvit Road.
To no one’s surprise, the man had already checked out of the hotel. Police then resorted to old-school tactics of waving around photos of Joyce and asking “Have you seen this man?”
That led to an informant tip that he was spotted in Kanchanaburi.
The trip west proved another failure as the man was still not found and no new clues emerged to help determine his location.
Two weeks later, the police heard he was spotted in Hua Hin, so out they rushed again, going from place to place showing a picture of Joyce.
After searching for three days, a motorbike rental shop owner said he recognized the guy. It turned out Joyce had another farang rent out a motorbike for him, so police went looking for that guy.
On April 21, police were surveilling several locations around Hua Hin in hopes of spotting the fugitive. In the end, one lucky police officer spotted Joyce and took him into custody.
Joyce will be extradited to England where he faces criminal charges with a maximum penalty of up to seven years in prison.
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