British woman and friends caught breaking Covid-19 rules with pool party in Thailand

British woman and friends caught breaking Covid-19 rules with pool party in Thailand

A British woman was among a of 11 foreigners caught allegedly breaking Covid-19 rules by having a drunken pool party inside a house in southern Thailand.

British woman Lama Bolton, 41, and Swedish man Carl Martin Oestlind, 36, who live at the property, allegedly invited friends and family over for a meal in their villa in Phuket province on May 10.

The group of 15 people – 11 foreigners including other Brits and four Thai locals – were caught drinking alcohol by the pool while the others partied around the house when the police arrived after receiving a complaint from their neighbours.

After taking evidence at the property, officers took house Lama and Carl with them to the Cherng Talay Police Station and were fined 6,000 baht (136GBP) each for violating the country’s Communicable Disease Act before they were allowed home.

Police General Peerachart Pomboonmee said the foreigners have become notorious in the neighbourhood for frequently holding loud parties despite not being vaccinated.

He said: ‘The neighbours have become concerned about the couple as they reportedly held parties frequently despite not being vaccinated yet.

‘We asked them to come outside.

Not everyone in the house at that time lived there so they held an illegal gathering that violated our Covid-19 rules.’ Police offcier Phantawat Wongwassana said the other guests have also come forward to their station to pay fines but only four foreigners – two of them Lama and Carl – and two Thais showed up so far.

He said: ‘There were three families gathering inside the house.

Four Thai females, three of them were the wives of the other foreigners while one was a helper.

The police charged them with a fine but only four foreigners and two Thais have been to the station so far.’ Thailand recorded 1,919 new Covid-19 cases today and 31 deaths, taking the total number of infections recording since the pandemic began to 86,924 with 452 dead.