Phuket yachtsman attacked by ‘samurai’ motorbike gang | Bangkok Post: news

Phuket yachting figure Neil Petford was attacked and robbed by a “samurai” motorbike gang on his way home from the final party of the recent King’s Cup Regatta.

Neil Petford shows button pocket from which wallet was stolen. Photo: Marque Rome The internationally respected yachtsman, master shipwright, naval architect and expert in composites was riding his motorbike towards Rawai from the party at Kata Beach Resort when he was attacked at about 1 am on the Kata Noi – Viewpoint road. Mr Petford crashed after trying to avoid two men twirling “samurai swords”, and was then knocked off his bike. Thieves took the keys from his motorcycle and his wallet, which contained B5,000 in cash, a Malaysian 50-ringgit note, credit cards, and other documents. He was injured in the crash, and is now booked in for a CT scan. Mr Petford, 59, from New Zealand by way of Australia, was acting as shore crew for one of the leading racing yachts in this year’s regatta. He arrived for the closing party at about 11.30 pm. “The food and drinks were already over,” he said, explaining that he had been on the press boat during the final race and was thereafter occupied with event-related business till late. “The party was closing down when I got there.” He had come that morning from Chalong on his motorbike, a 100-cc Suzuki. “I normally don’t go anywhere at night on a motorcycle,” he said, adding that he was ready to leave it at Kata when a group of friends talked of hiring a tuk-tuk to take them back. But the group dispersed before the taxi was called. Mr Petford, wary of traffic on the busy Kata-Chalong road, elected to take the route less travelled over the mountains from Kata Noi to Rawai. That road twists and turns, and declines steeply before debouching on to the flatlands not far from Icon, a popular discotheque just off Sai Yuan Rd. “I was thinking the place was safe,” he said. “I’d done it during the day so I felt okay. I’m a safe driver, I don’t ride too fast, but I was probably riding too slow.” He was on the steep descent, just past two elephant camps, about half-a-kilometre from the bottom, when two men twirling “samurai swords” stepped from cover on either side of the road. “Big shiny swords – I saw ‘em in my headlights and thought, obviously, ‘Danger! Danger!’ So I put down my head and accelerated.” Mr Petford swept past the swordsmen, then slowed down, thinking, “What the f--k? That was close.” He drove on another hundred metres or so, imagining himself to be out of danger. “I saw nothing in my mirrors, no guys, nothing behind me, then suddenly I was hit from the right-hand rear by a motorcycle, maybe kicked.” He said the attackers had been following him with their headlights off. Mr Petford’s bike went down hard. He was travelling, he thinks, “maybe 40 kilometres per hour” and appears to have lost consciousness, though he was wearing a crash helmet. When he came to, he says, “They were gone. I realised I was on the ground, hurt.” The thieves had taken the keys from his motorcycle and his wallet, which contained B5,000 in cash, a Malaysian 50-ringgit note, credit cards, and other documents. “I picked the bike up, thinking they might come back, then coasted to the bottom of the hill, the wheel wobbling because it was damaged.” He stopped and “checked for damage to myself.” His elbow bone was exposed, his ribs and collar bone bruised, his knee badly hurt, all on his right side. He stood “for five-to-ten minutes” wondering how to proceed “when a girl came round the corner on her motorbike, saw me bleeding and stopped to see what happened. She straight away called police on her phone and waited...