Over 5 years ago I entered this business in an effort to provide riders of which  am one, with  an improved standard of honest service. Over much of that period I achieved some success but ultimately failed.  

           The main reason for the failure is down to the gross dishonesty of Komsan and his associates.

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 Komsan Outaisar (Jum) is  a Thai national who I found some 4 years ago. At that time he was financially broke, I helped him by paying out some debt and getting him back on his feet.                        

Read on to find out how I was repaid. BTW Jum is now in the same position, even after stealing a few million baht off me and writing out his own dishonored Cheques (2.4 Mill Baht) to others. He even ripped off two of his best friends.

  Despite being paid well, Jum decided some time ago that he could make money on the side by buying and selling bikes privately. I gave him many chances to correct his behavior, warning him on multiple occasions that he didn't have the business skills or integrity to run his own business. In May of this year I had enough and  terminated his employment.

     I thought at that time my woes were over but on the contrary, they had just begun. The business had been running well enough since the time that Jum had departed until we received a visit from a bunch of Thugs masquerading as Police. There was no doubt that there were a couple of fairly senior Police in the Mob. Even though they didn't have the guts to identify themselves. They went through the shop and my living premises thoroughly. My fear at the time was that that they were going to plant something to "nail" us with. In the end they came up with a list of "indiscretions" that they said they would charge us with, furthermore if we didn't co operate, they would find more.

    My wife is the legal head of the shop so she was the one they were intimidating. The next day we had a further visit from a individual thug who, while he wouldn't identify himself I had no doubt was  cop. The intimidation process got heavier, even to implying possible harm to my daughters. Again, the threat was, co operate or else ! What they wanted to take few bikes which at that time we felt we had to comply with, after all, threats to your family tend to distort rational thought. 

   The back ground to all this is, working from his home, Jum had taken deposits from many fellow Thai's for bikes he had written out contracts for on forged Siamsuperbike letterhead. These bikes were not supplied, presumably because Jum had blown the money on pickups with big shiny wheels and large gold chains. When his customers pressured him for return of deposits, no cash or bikes were forth coming so instead Jum pointed them to me, as a potential soft target.

    Later it was reported to me that the customers conspired to approach the Police, who were then offered and accepted a substantial bribe to harass and intimidate my wife and I for replacement bikes, which they took from our stock. Eventually by one means or another they got almost everything, even bikes that I had thought were safely stored away at friends place, well out of the city.   A good customer and close friend is working in Iraq, a couple of weeks ago a pickup with police on board turned up at his place and loaded up the bikes saying they were imported illegally, which they weren't but as the paperwork was locked in a safe inaccessible to the maid, she wasn't in a position to stop them. 

   On another occasion, a Cop who had purchased a CB 1300 from Jum, months after Jum had departed from the business, came to see us because the customs invoice had never been received for this bike. None of us knew how we could help as it was a transaction entirely between this cop and Jum.  It didn't stop the cop coming back and lifting a 2003 R1 as "compensation". While I am taking legal action to recover one or two of these bikes any result is unlikely to happen soon.

    In the end I had to close the premises because of the constant stream of Jum's dissatisfied customers banging on the door asking for "compensation". Meanwhile Jum, being the  gutless, slimy individual he is, has disappeared into hiding, leaving others to face the flack.

   As well as taking my own stock the cops lifted some customers bikes, I have made a best effort to replace these but its drained me financially.

     Now that I have  my wife and daughters established out in the country, I need to take a couple of months to go back home to sell some assets and endeavor to rebuild and repair the damage brought about by Jum. In the meantime I have kept Pop on as my one remaining employee, he is the only one that has stuck with me through all this. He will deal with any registration books, warrantee and residual issues until I get back and re-established.

I have been in Thailand well over a decade, so heard many stories and I would have to say If I had heard this story second hand, I would have thought to myself "that's a bit a tall one" We all know the Police here aren't the purest in the world BUT! 

    Since this happened to me I have had  a few people offer similar experiences, not so much with the police but with gross employee embezzlement.

Lessons learnt.

   I came here after being involved in western business for 30 years, I thought that experience and what ever skills I had acquired over this time, equipped me well enough to do business in Thailand. That wasn't the case, In Thailand and presumably other 3rd world countries, you need an additional set of skills focused on security issues to make it here.

 Mistake #1:  Unfortunately I made the mistake of looking after people too well. In the Western mind set, If you look after employee's they in return will place a higher value on their employment and loyalty to their employer.  NOT HERE.  Looking after employee's with bonus's and good pay only raises their feeling of self worth and future expectations. It has no lasting impact on loyalty at all.  As a note, I have employed 14 people over the last 5 years, 12 of these have I have fired for theft. What kind of moral guidance, if any do parents give to  these people ? Maybe, Thai men are born with the Integrity gene missing.

  Mistake #2 : If you are in business here, retain the services of a GOOD lawyer, having one would have saved my business, all the negotiation would have been with him and he wouldn't be as easy to intimidate as my wife and I were. In fact  have two lawyers, a local, cost effective for tax and compliance issues and a "high powered" western one for major issues.

  Mistake #3. Don't trust !   A healthy dose of paranoia and more importantly skepticism is not a bad thing in Thailand. We have all heard the "Girl got my house" stories, but in business here its worse, there are sadly few people with the sort of  ethical behavior we generally tend to take for norm in 1st world countries.

  Mistake #3 Letting them gain leverage.  Someone told me "in 3rd world countries, if you have assets and they gain leverage, they will use that to relieve you of your assets" .                                                    Never let them get leverage. I was guilty of doing this I am afraid, in too many ways,  being talked into doing it "The Thai way". Shortcuts only work until they can turn them against you. In addition because I don't read Thai, I glossed over documents putting my trust with Jum. In future all Invoices, agreements etc would be "gone over" and kept  with a local Thai lawyer. They (Thai lawyers) are useless in confrontational work but for checking paperwork, compliance and tax issues, they are masters. the Thai system is designed to give locals leverage, minority ownership etc and its getting worse now that for new companies, all shareholders are to have access to business banking accounts.    You must at all costs secure and  protect your assets.

For the future:

   To be honest my first response was just to pack up and go home, but my family was born here. I really enjoy many aspects of living here and wish to continue to do so. Almost without exception friends and many customers persuaded me that the right thing was to continue the business, albeit in a different and more secure form. I have been in this business longer than any other westerner and have more experience, good and bad than most. I love Motorcycles and believe they make sense in a country with weather such as this. In this business you have great customers, nearly all are nice people and many have become good friends. On the supply side, you need to deal with the vermin who supply bikes and facilitate things for you.

While its going to be very difficult with almost no capital, I would like to keep the business operational from a new  and secure site. In other words we won't have a open a conventional show room as such, bikes available with be listed on the internet and you will be welcome to come and have a look by appointment. I don't intend to have the usual type of showroom and be at the constant mercy of the scum bag's to harass and pick off what they want when ever.

 This will give me better security and as well enable us with significantly lower overheads to give much better pricing. 

Update 5th Dec 2006

Firstly I would like to express my gratitude for the many dozens of encouraging emails, SMS's and calls. Its been uplifting to say the least, having the support of so many great people. Thanks and more thanks.

 At the moment I am in Australia until the 22nd of Jan, having some time with my family and regrouping my thoughts. I have had a few offers from people to assist in a rebuild of the company and I guess that would be my first preference, I love bikes and the people that ride them. In the meantime we have a few bikes to sell, nearly are from friends keen to assist in keeping things on track, so be assured that the bikes are "honest" as far as condition goes. If you have any interest, please ring Pop on 095064097.

New in:

2002 Yamaha V Max full power US spec. 8,000 Mls

Muzzy cans, Carbon Fibre trimmings, Dyno jet kit, K&N and other extra's. Registered already priced at 280,000 Baht.   A very tidy well kept bike.