Expat Oil Worker Alastair Stuart Cooper damages case adjourned indefintely.

 Bangkok, 28th January 2016

A civil damages case filed by expat oil worker Alastair 'Ally' Cooper has been  adjourned without date prior to judgement.

Cooper filed the case for damages against Drew Noyes, Brian Goudie and David Hanks but failed to attend Court yesterday, sending only his lawyer K. Jirut.

The Court adjourned the case to await the outcome of a criminal case in the Court of Appeal which had already seen Hanks and Noyes dropped from the case.

Cooper has not given evidence in the case and under Thai law it is likely the case will be dismissed.

The lawyer for Cooper attended Court today only to find that he and his client had been cited for contempt of court following the unlawful publication of an unverified court record online - the Court advised the contempt charges must be heard as a criminal case.

Documents filed alleged that on 14th October Cooper's 'legal agent', Kanokrat Nimsamoot Booth, had obtained an arrest warrant for Brian Goudie in Pattaya Court on the same day that a case had been scheduled in Bangkok.

The case in Pattaya, filed by Booth on behalf of Boonrod Baikrathok  ( บุุญรอด บ่ายกระโทก ), who is a retired 'freelance' worker in Pattaya alleges photographic images of her were posted online.

The Baikrathok case was dismissed by  police and public prosecutors in 2014 and was thrown out by Pattaya Court in July 2015 year after a botched preliminary hearing - Baikrathok the restarted the case, but Goudie's lawyers say they will appeal to the Region 2 Court of Appeal to have the case dismissed as an abuse of process.

Baikrathok herself allegedly continues to dodge police on charges that she stole equipment from one of Goudie's companies, a matter that has been brought to the attention of the Court.

Baikrathok - alleged to be dodging theft charges

Following becoming aware of the arrest warrant, Goudie filed contempt of court charges in Pattaya Court and Bangkok Court alleging that Booth was aware that Goudie was in Court in Bangkok.

Booth will face a hearing on charges of contempt of court on a date to be fixed.

Goudie has since filed further charges in relation to an unsigned court record  that has seen a number of parties being cited for contempt of court following the unlawful publication of an unverified court record online.

In a related matter in what is thought to be a first, the Technical Crime Suppression Division of the Royal Thai Police are thought to be obtaining arrest warrants for two other individuals in relation to Facebook posts threatening Goudie online- neither individual is known to Goudie or is involved in the present case.

In Bangkok, the lawyer was warned that he could well face disciplinary proceedings, and Goudie has been advised to file civil and criminal charges against all parties.

Cooper is also facing trial on a number of Computer Crimes Act as a joint defendant with convicted criminal and wanted fugitive Andrew Drummond on Computer Crimescharges filed by Noyes, which are scheduled to go to trial later this year.

Andrew Drummond - wanted fugitive.

Drummond absconded whilst on bail in January 2015 and has outstanding arrest warrants in cases filed by Goudie, Noyes and Hanks.

IPSO censures Ayrshire Post newspaper over article based on Andrew Drummond article.

London, 5th January 2016

UPDATE: FOLLOWING A COMPLAINT THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE HAS BEEN REMOVED AND RE_POSTED HERE.

The Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) has censured the Ayrshire Post, a Trinity Mirror Group newspaper, following publication of an article titled 'Tied up in a Thai Racket' in May of this year.

In complaint number 04727-15, filed by expat David Hanks, the UK press regulator has ordered that a follow up article and correction be published on the front page of the Ayrshire Post in the next edition.

The details of the offending  article were taken from the web site of  fugitive journalist Andrew Drummond - a fact which the publication admitted during the IPSO process.

Drummond was twice convicted in Thailand before absconding whilst on bail in the face of a mounting number of criminal prosecutions under Thailand's Computer Crimes Act.

Andrew Drummond -convicted and on the run.

The article reported that Hanks was remanded in custody and had been arrested with a Russian named Alexander Matusov, who it was said was a feared Russian Mafia hit an with links to a Moscow based gang - in fact
Hanks had never been in custody and the co-accused was Alexander Komondorskiy.

Hanks was subsequently acquitted of all charges.

The article also claimed that Hanks was a 'henchman' and had been described in Court as 'mafia', however the publication had not been able to supply any evidence to confirm these allegations - whereas Hanks had provided documents that showed the article was not based on fact - in the complaint, Hanks described the article as a 'complete fabrication'.

Hanks had questioned why the publication had published an article submitted by a journalist who was not present in the Court and therefore could not possibly know if the article was accurate or not.

David Hanks - article was 'complete fabrication'.

Lawyers for Trinity Mirror Group had claimed the Ayrshire Post had published the article in 'good faith' based on Drummond's reputation, and his 25 years of experience reporting news in Thailand and had asked IPSO to dismiss the complaint -  this defence was rejected by the IPSO complaints committee, which had been provided with copies of outstanding arrest warrants for Drummond.

Hanks had told IPSO that the arrest warrants proved Drummond was not present at the hearing and had simply fabricated the report.

Hanks has announced that he will now take proceedings in the UK against Drummond and the publication and will ask for 'substantial' damages.

In upholding the complaint the IPSO Complaints Committee said:

'The newspaper had not been able to demonstrate that it had taken care over the accuracy of its report with regard to the reference to his being in custody and name of the complainant’s co-defendant. These elements were central claims about the nature and status of the proceedings, and the newspaper could have verified these details. In the absence of any explanation for the publication of the inaccurate information, the Committee established a breach of 1(i)'.

 Hanks said yesterday:

'Obviously I am very happy that IPSO has upheld this complaint, and in doing so recognized the Ayrshire Post had not taken sufficient steps to verify the accuracy of the information supplied by Andrew Drummond.

Now that the complaint has been upheld I have instructed lawyers in the UK to commence proceedings against Trinity Mirror Group and Andrew Drummond.

The article was published about a Thai Court hearing,  but the submitting journalist had by that time been on the run for at least 5 months, and was not present in Court.

This article was published in a targeted area in a small community, and the IPSO complaint and correction is nowhere near a sufficient remedy, and I will now seek punitive damages in the UK under the Defamation Act 2013 against Drummond and the Trinity Mirror Group.'

The publication has removed the article from it's web site.

Click here for Click here for full text of the IPSO ruling.