Dear expats and readers,
In the normal course of my day, I’m doing one of several things — often out of order:
Wake up too late, find caffeine — then nicotine: a vicious cycle
Chip away at research on stories I am perpetually late on publishing
Do the actual writing, which comes in fits and spurts, sometimes resembling something like a dry cough, sometimes an symphony (in my mind, at least) on the page
The main story I’m working on now involves Zhao Wei, and the second installment should be released here soon. I have most of the research done and dusted, and a workable outline of how I want to lay out his story, which will take you to the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone.
The Zhao Wei story is part of a bigger project I am cobbling together on crime in modern Asia.
There is one thread of crime in Thailand and Asia that I am reluctant to pursue. For my own personal safety, yes, but more importantly the safety of my kids in Thailand.
If you’re familiar at all with Andrew Drummond’s work, I’m sure you can work out what I’m alluding to. If not, then I’d only advise to do your own research.
And from time to time, when a curious mood strikes me, I lift the weathered wooden hatch that leads to the subterranean den of dastardly crimes that Andrew catalogued so well.
Most of what I find, I can’t publish. But today I found something that I thought was important enough to get out to my readers, and the public at large, because I haven’t seen much of an update on the case.
The story I’m referring to comes from January 2017 and took place in Pattaya, Thailand.
On January 23rd, 2017, a man named Tony Kenway was gunned down in broad daylight while sitting in the driver's seat of his red Porsche Cayenne GTS.
The two hitmen, later identified as Miles Dicken Turner from Oxford who was the getaway driver, and Abel Candeira Bonito from South Africa who was the gunman, disappeared into Cambodia via Trat — never to be heard from again.
But the man who ordered the hit, Toby Nelhams, was arrested on an international warrant, issued by Thai authorities, at the Malaga Airport in Spain in October 2018.
He had spent time in a Cambodian prison previously in 2017 for other fraud related charges tied to his boiler room operation — and this is likely where the beef between Kenway and Nelhams had its root.
The hit on Kenway was ordered by Nelhams due to a debt of 8 million baht that had gone unpaid.
Nothing else was published about Toby Nelhams since the arrest in late 2018.
Out of curiosity, I did a bit of searching, and uncovered this document.
It was issued by the St Pancras Coronor's Court, which serves inner north London, and is located on Camley Street, St Pancras. The court covers cases for the boroughs of Camden, Islington, Hackney, and Tower Hamlets.
If you scroll down to the last page of this document, on the fourth line from the bottom, you find the name Toby Nelhams, aged 47 — which lines up with the age published in reports when he was in the headlines a couple years back.
His line is dated Tuesday, the 27th of April, at 2PM, and he is tagged with the postcode NW3.
I’m not intimately familiar with UK bureaucracy or record keeping, but a coroner is a coroner the world over.
According to the Coroners' Society of England & Wales own FAQ, a HM Coroner will receive a referral of death for the following reasons:
Which only begs the question — how did Toby Nelhams die, and why hasn’t the press published anything about his passing?
Does this provide closure to the 2017 hit on Tony Kenway? After all, dead men tell no tales.
If there are any readers who are more familiar with UK record keeping, please contact me, as I have some other questions regarding this matter.
That’s it for now.
Stay tuned for the second installment for Zhao Wei this week.
Best,
TCT