THE vicious turf war between British gangs in Thailand over savers’ stolen millions burst into the open last year when one fraudster was gunned down in cold blood.
Brash Tony Kenway, 39, raked in millions running his own clone fraud operation in Thailand while managing the computer servers for other outfits.
But in a battle over £200,000 of stolen money the IT whizz, from Southampton, was blasted in the head in a gangland-style hit as he sat in his red Porsche in Pattaya, south Thailand, in January last year.
Dad-of-four Kenway, who boasted about his lavish lifestyle on social media, helped run criminal enterprises robbing millions from savers in the UK and Australia.
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.
They said he owned at least five properties, a number of cars and businesses and had raked in millions defrauding thousands of victims.
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He is said to have been involved in a dispute over £200,000 of ill-gotten gains from another gang which led to his murder.
Thai police had sought three men over the murder including Brit Toby James Nelhams, alleged Brit getaway moped driver Miles Dicken Turner, 28, from Oxford, and suspected gunman Abel Candeira Bonito, 24, from South Africa.
Nelhams was originally suspected by Thai police of involvement in the murder of Brit fraudster Tony Kenway last year but has not been prosecuted and is no longer thought to be wanted over the crime.
Nelhams, who ran a huge clone fraud operation in Cambodia under the name Springtide International, was arrested by local cops in Phnom Penhm after the murder in February last year while Dicken Turner and Bonito remained on the run.
He was jailed for eight months in September on fraud charges over his operation scamming victims over the phone but was not prosecuted over his suspected role in Kenway’s murder.
The killing highlighted the lengths the crooks will go to protect their operations in what has become a multi-billion pound criminal enterprise.
Nelhams was understood to be out of jail by the start of this year and is now running a clone fraud firm in Hua Hin, south Thailand, while still maintaining links to his old companies in Cambodia.
Our undercover reporter’s conversation with a high-level Brit fraudster in Cambodia revealed the ease at which the fraudsters operate in corrupt countries around the globe.
Fraud team floor manager “James” boasted how the con men pay off local police and politicians to allow them to operate freely.
He said: “The reason we are in Cambodia in Phnom Penh because the business is rife in South-East Asia – it’s so popular because of the corruption in the government and police and everything else.
“You pay someone high up a bit of money and have no problems with the police coming through your door.”
Alluding to trouble with the authorities last year, James added: “We’ve been in Cambodia for three years – we had to take six months off last year but we were given fair warning and re-located to Thailand.
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“We came back with a bigger office than we had before. It happens in Madrid, Barcelona.
“It’s a Brit who owns this company, mainly Brits own these companies. The owner’s always around – I speak to him every day on the phone.
“We move around and fly around, staying in five -star hotels – we went to London a couple of months ago and went to Heston Blumenthal’s restaurant with another manager – we both flew business class.
“Met him for a beautiful dinner then flew back. He had loads of money in his pocket and wanted to treat us.”
Investigative journalist Andrew Drummond, who was forced to leave Thailand after years exposing the British fraud gangs, told how the criminals work hand-in-hand with corrupt authorities.
He explained the murder of Kenway was the latest in a string of gangland attacks which have included murders, kidnappings and corrupt police operations against rivals.
Mr Drummond also told how the clone fraud operations work across borders and crooks drive car-fulls of cash between Malaysia, Thailand and Cambodia.
One alleged clone fraud boss has even bought huge leisure sites in Bangkok, Thailand, and property in Amsterdam with cash suspected of being ripped off from savers in the UK and elsewhere.
But the suspected crook, who even tried to buy a football team, has avoided arrest due to suspected police and government corruption.
Mr Drummond, who is now living back in Britain with his family, said: “It’s mainly Brits doing this crime – followed by Australians, Americans and Canadians.
“Cheap booze and girls basically is what it’s all about – and they’re flashing cash all over the place.
Original story – The assassination of Tony Kenway
“The fraud squad here know that all these operations work with the blessing of the authorities – they pay the police, pay the army, pay immigration and can afford to do it.
“One guy was paying out up to a million dollars a month to the authorities in Thailand.
“There was a murder of a guy from New Zealand previously. There have been a few kidnappings and whistleblowers have been set up after squealing to the wrong Thai policeman.
“All the money is going through legitimate offshore banks – they are the real problem and this is the British government’s problem.”
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