British man from Southampton was shot in his Porsche in Pattaya.
Tony Kenway, a British man from Southampton, was shot and killed while sitting in the driver's seat of his red Porsche Cayenne GTS in the car park of the Sanit sports club in the Bang Lamung district of the Thai resort town of Pattaya. According to witnesses, a chubby man wearing a white t-shirt and black jacket opened Kenway's car door and shot him once before escaping on a motorcycle. Kenway's wife had told officers he had set up a website design business. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) confirmed that it was in contact with local police regarding the incident.
Tony Kenway's Facebook profile indicated that he had been living in Bangkok and had previously resided in Marbella, Spain. He had been married to his wife, Pans, since November 2011. Kenway's sister, Kirsty Kenway, of Southampton, stated that she did not know what had happened to her brother. She added that he had done a lot for charity and had even met the future king of Thailand.
The Sanit sports club posted a message on their Facebook page expressing their condolences to Kenway's family and friends. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) confirmed that they were in contact with the family and local authorities. A spokeswoman for the FCO also offered their sympathies to the family during this difficult time.
A British businessman was recently shot.
The police in Thailand are currently searching for two men who are believed to be connected to the murder of the businessman, one of whom is British. According to the authorities, Kenway was the kingpin of a sprawling boiler room scam that was Wolf of Wall Street-style. This scam tricked thousands of Brits and Australians out of millions of pounds, and police are currently investigating the operation that funded his lavish lifestyle in Pattaya.
Kenway was 39 years old when he was shot in the head as he was about to get into his Porsche Cayenne after leaving the gym. The police are currently investigating the vast boiler room gang operation that they claim tricked thousands of victims out of their life savings.
The police are currently looking for two suspects, Miles Dicken Turner, a fellow Brit, and Abel Bonito Caldeira, who is from South Africa, in connection with the murder.
Police have named the two suspects as South African Abel Caldeira Bonito (left) and British national Miles Dicken Turner (right).
According to court papers, Kenway was wanted for working illegally in Thailand, and the authorities had attempted to deport him. However, friends of the businessman paid his bail, and he was due to appear in court next month. The police believe that Kenway had a dispute with a former employee, and the dispute escalated when he began working for a rival firm.
The police involved in the investigation said that Tony Kenway had a call centre that employed foreign staff and made calls to Australia and Britain. He had two different companies that were involved in the scam. The aim of the scam was to get people abroad to give their life savings. Kenway was known to push for big investments, and he promised his clients a big win, like winning the lottery. Unfortunately, those who paid the money lost out as they were tricked out of millions of Thai baht.
The police are currently investigating two other rival call centre operations that offered investments to foreigners desperate to cash in on Thailand's booming tourist industry. The authorities are looking at three companies at the centre of the investigation, and it is a very complex investigation. Kenway's staff offered stakes in different web ventures, including gambling sites that would eventually collapse or be sold with a far lower return to the investors.
According to the police, Kenway had many enemies and had done a lot of bad things. The police believe that he had made a lot of money from his scams, and that he used that money to fund his lavish lifestyle in Pattaya. He had posted a picture of Leonardo DiCaprio on his Facebook page on New Year's Eve, which was an apparent reference to the hard-selling tactics used in the hit movie, The Wolf of Wall Street.
Boiler room scams like the one run by Kenway are becoming increasingly common in Southeast Asia. These scams involve cold calling investors and using high-pressure sales tactics to convince them to invest in fraudulent schemes. The callers are often based in call centres in countries like Thailand and the Philippines, and they target victims in other countries, including the UK and Australia.
These boiler room scams have been around for many years, and they have caused many people to lose their life savings. The scams are illegal, and the people involved in them can face long prison sentences if they are caught. However, the scammers are often difficult to catch as they operate from overseas and use complex techniques to hide their identities.
Boiler room scams are not just a problem in Southeast Asia; they are a global problem. They are often run by sophisticated criminal networks that use the internet and other technologies to reach their victims. These scams can cause people to lose their life savings, and they can have devastating consequences for their victims.
Tony Kenway highlighted the problem of boiler room scams.
Police suspect that British businessman Tony Kenway, who had settled in Thailand after arriving from Costa Del Sol, was involved in illegal activities and had amassed millions of dollars in wealth. He owned multiple properties, several sports cars, and multiple businesses. His wife, Somporn, was reportedly unaware of her husband's activities. The couple had two children together, including a four month old baby.
Court documents dated September 27, 2016, reveal that Kenway was caught working illegally, and the government attempted to deport him. However, he was released on bail by a friend. Kenway was ordered to stop working in Thailand and was due in court next month to answer additional charges of hiring foreigners and working illegally.
Following Kenway's murder, suspects Miles Turner and Abel Caldeira fled to Cambodia. Police are still investigating the motive behind the shooting, but they suspect that Kenway had made several enemies, particularly through his involvement in an illegal call center that preyed on foreign nationals in European countries. He reportedly asked the police to arrest a former business partner who owed him £200,000.
Kenway also owned a football gambling website that may have caused a rift with rival firms. He had met with the rival group twice, but there had still been a conflict. Police are considering this as one possible motive for his murder, but there may be others.
Officials released an image allegedly showing the suspects on a motorbike, with one holding a gun. Police traced the motorbike used to flee the scene back to a local bike rental company that had copies of the suspects' passports on file. The suspects had already left their accommodation by the time the police searched it.
A friend of suspect Miles Turner revealed that Turner had moved to Thailand from Spain around three years ago. Turner had worked in a call center after dropping out of university.
Miles Turner was a well spoken and clever individual who came from a respected family. Despite being different from others and having strong morals, he did not compromise to fit in. The friend, who regarded Miles as his little brother, revealed that he last spoke to him online a couple of years ago when Miles asked to borrow £200, saying he had to leave Spain in a hurry and was in Asia. The friend also mentioned that many of the ex-pats he knew in Marbella had moved out to Asia. Recently, Miles had become the godfather of a friend's child.
On the other hand, Mr Kenway's family is clueless about why he was targeted. Kirsty, Mr Kenway's younger sister, who lives in Southampton, stated that her brother got married to Somporn, nicknamed Pans, five years ago. The couple had two children together, a daughter aged three and a baby born in September. Additionally, Mr Kenway had a ten year old stepson in Spain and a son aged nine.
Pol Gen Suchart stated that last Thursday in Hat Lek, Trat province, a Thai border town, two suspects allegedly hired a 48 year old van driver to take them to Bang Lamung.
The suspects did not provide a specific destination to the driver and instructed him to wait at a hotel. On Tuesday at around 10:30 am, after Mr Kenway's murder had been reported to the Nong Prua police, the duo asked the driver to take them back to Hat Lek.
The driver claimed that Caldeira and Turner paid him 3,000 baht per day, approximately £67, and gave him a 5,000 baht tip upon arriving in Hat Lek. He stated that the men did not behave suspiciously and identified themselves to the police when their photographs were shown.
Peter Cole, the manager of the Sanit Sport Club where Mr Kenway was killed, told that the two suspects were not members of the gymThe Foreign Office confirmed that a British citizen had died in Pattaya and that they were providing consular support to his family. A spokesperson said, "We are assisting the family of a British man following his death in Pattaya, Thailand. Our thoughts are with them during this challenging time. We are in contact with the local authorities."
What happens after.
After the initial reports of the murder and the arrests of the suspects, there were further developments in the investigation. Thai police announced that they believed a third suspect, a Thai woman, was involved in the crime and was still at large. They also revealed that the murder weapon, a gun, had been recovered from a nearby lake. The police continued their search for the third suspect and conducted further investigations into the motive for the murder.
In addition, there were reports of a possible connection between Miles Kenway and a British businessman named Tony Kenway, who was murdered in Pattaya in January 2017. Thai police investigated whether the two cases were linked and whether there was a connection to a British organized crime syndicate operating in Thailand.
The trial for the two suspects began in October 2017. The court heard evidence from witnesses, including the van driver who transported the suspects, and forensic experts who analyzed the murder weapon.
In January 2018, both defendants were found guilty of premeditated murder and weapons offenses and sentenced to death by a Thai court. They have since appealed their sentences. The third suspect, the Thai woman, remains at large.
Okt 2018, Convicted British fraudster arrested in Spain.
Spanish police have arrested a convicted British fraudster, Toby James Nelhams, aged 45, who was wanted in Thailand over the murder of another expat. Detectives held Nelhams on an international arrest warrant as he landed at Malaga Airport. Thai police suspect Nelhams ordered the murder of Tony Kenway, a British expat, who ran a fraudulent operation and was shot in the head on January 24 last year. Nelhams was one of three men sought over the murder, which occurred in Pattaya, South Thailand.
Reports earlier this year suggested that Nelhams was no longer thought to be wanted over the crime, but the international arrest warrant was still in place. Nelhams is believed to have appeared before an extradition judge at a court in Madrid following his arrest, although the result of the hearing is unclear. Thai authorities had issued proceedings to deport Kenway, who had been in the country for seven years after moving from Marbella, for working illegally when he was executed.