BRITISH JOURNALIST WINS CASE AGAINST 'MAFIA' MAN CALLED ‘BABYFACE’

Bangkok based British journalist Andrew Drummond has defeated libel and computer crime act cases brought by a former brothel owner in Melbourne, Australia.

Koh Samui Provincial Court has dismissed the charges brought by David John Hanks, 66, for a story which appeared on andrew-drummond.com headlined ‘Pimp From Girvan Scared Health Clinic Boss’ and in the ‘Scottish Sun’ headlined  ‘OAP from Girvan Was a Mafia Enforcer’.

Drummond, former Observer and Times correspondent now accredited to the London Evening Standard, who also runs an international news website which concentrates on transnational crime in SE Asia,  reported that in a separate trial in Pattaya a Mr. Michael Goulet, a partner of the Thonglor Clinic in Jomtien, had given evidence in the case of Drew Walter Noyes, who is accused with Wanrapa Boonsu of the attempted extortion of the Thonglor Clinic.

And in that evidence Goulet said that Hanks had told him that Noyes was a mafia type figure and was Hank’s boss.



Prior to the alleged attempted extortion Hanks had turned up at the clinic and told Goulet that his boss Noyes wanted to speak to him  about the protection he could offer so that his clinic could run without any trouble.

The court subsequently heard that Noyes demanded 7 million baht to stop a police raid on his premises when illegal substances would be found. The demand was later reduced to 2.3 million and police set up a sting operation against Noyes. Hanks, originally from Girvan, Ayrshire, was in the News Restaurant in Pattaya with Noyes and Boonsu when the arrests were made.

Hanks had told Goulet  that he was in the sex business in Australia and knew Chinese mafia, and indeed when Drummond checked, he found that Hanks was the registered owner of Masquerades Brothel in, Keysborough, Melbourne , Australia, and had told the business on to Chinese.

Goulet told the court at the time: “I was in fear for my own security.”

Hanks was later arrested in Pattaya along with a group of Russians in an investigation by the Department of Investigations.

He was accused or racketeering by lending money to Russians at 60 per cent per month. The case is still under investigation. Several Thai newspapers ran with the headlines described the operation as 'mafia' controlled.




Hanks’ only witness was Brian Goudie, also known as Brian Goldie, who claimed that Drummond’s remarks were extremely libelous and had caused his friend serious damage.

Hanks and Goldie/Goudie were also exposed in the Sunday Mail in Scotland for attempting to con millionaire Bill Monson. the American media businessman who lost millions after going into business with former Thai Premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

Hanks and Goudie at the Maharaj Indian Restaurant in Hua Hin

Posing as lawyers for a fee of US7 million, it was claimed, they offered to get Monson's cash back. Monson smelled a rat and pulled out.

Prior to arriving in Thailand pretending to be a barrister and former Captain in the Royal Marines Goudie, under the name Goldie was jailed for six years in Australia for stealing from his employers, a Perth mining company.

Goudie is currently on trial in Pattaya charged with posing as a barrister to defraud Elizabeth Fannelli Miller, 76, out of 7.9 million Thai baht.


Drew Walter Noyes and Wanrapa Boonsu are due in court on October 28th to hear the verdict against them in the extortion case.