Thai police arrest three foreigners for crimes committed abroad

06 August, 2010
Monstersandcritics.com

Bangkok - Thai police this week arrested three foreigners wanted for crimes in other countries, for which they face extradition, police said Friday.

Immigration police earlier this week arrested Britons Stuart Scott Crawford, 44, wanted for murder in Britain, and David John Fletcher, 66, wanted for child sex abuse in Cambodia.

Also arrested was Ichiro Ogushi, 35, wanted in his native Japan for fraud.

All three face extradition, Immigration Police deputy commissioner Major General Pongdej Chaiprawat said.

The arrests, all made in Bangkok, were on the orders of new Immigration Police Bureau chief Police Lieutenant General Wuthi Liptapallop, who has launched a crackdown on foreigners facing arrest warrants abroad and in Thailand.

Crawford was on the British police's most wanted list as a prime suspect in the 2008 murder of his landlord in Sutton, near London, which also involved the theft of 6,500 pounds (10,340 dollars) in cash, Pongdej said.

Ogushi faces charges of faking his is own death in order to claim a 500-million-yen (5.8-million-dollar) life insurance policy in Japan. He has been living in Thailand since November 2009.

Fletcher, who served an 18-month jail term in Britain on child abuse charges in 1997-98, faces an arrest warrant in neighbouring Cambodia for allegedly sexually abusing boys and girls.

According to Cambodia police records, Fletcher set up a charity for poor children in Phnom Penh.

'This is a very sad case,' Pongdej said. 'This man allegedly set up a charity to help children and then he used it as a channel to abuse them instead.'

Fletcher, who was on Thailand's persona non grata list, will first face charges of breaking immigration laws and then be extradited to Cambodia, Pongdej said.