Thailand produces a multitude of silly, odd, amusing, and unfortunate happenings. Quite often, it is foreigners who provide the amusement. Here is my list of the ‘7 Most Unfortunate Foreigners In Thailand 2009’.

1. Those who just love to throw money away...
It is one thing to hand over your hard-earned cash to somebody who phones you up and asks for it in your home country, but quite another when they’re calling from abroad. Marvel at the foreigners duped into handing over approximately 100m Baht (£18m) between them to buy stocks and investments in companies that didn’t exist. Wouldn’t you check first?

2. There is nothing worse for an actor than being remembered for your genitals above your acting skills....
Actor David Carradine certainly caused a stir when he was found dead, hanging in a Bangkok hotel wardrobe with a rope attached to his neck and his genitals. Am I the only one who's surprised people are trying to claim foul play was involved?

3. Another genital related offering takes third spot...
An American named Mr Harold robbed a branch of Siam City bank and then hid his clothes in a nearby bush. Police caught up with him but Mr Harold denied all charges, that is until they asked him to try the robber’s clothes for size and discovered a 146,000 Baht (£2,650) bulge in his underpants.

4. Are UK Marines simply not that tough after all?
Scammed by Thai-Dutch jet ski rental man JJ on the series Big Trouble In Tourist Thailand, Jack Tebbott ran away from the scene and negotiated a ridiculously high repair fee for himself, even though he didn’t damage the jet ski in the first place. Forward to 3 minutes 10 seconds.
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5. An Iranian couple have sex on the beach, and I’m not talking cocktails...
Hashom Abdli, 28, and girlfriend, Margam Ziyace, 25,  felt rather too liberated in the saucy city of Pattaya and were fined 500 Baht (£10) each for doing the naughty in full public view.  Mr Abdli claimed that he didn’t know public sex was illegal. A classic excuse in my book.
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6. How NOT to rob a bank...
Sixty year old Michael Metcalfe flew back to Devon to rob a bank to support his Thai wife and child. Metcalfe left a holdall in the bank claiming it held explosives. The instructions were to meet him with bin bags of cash in a British Legion car park. Unfortunately the bank manager didn’t buy the scam and called the police. Metcalfe was later arrested at his mum’s house in Brixham. Unbelievably, he didn’t for one minute anticipate the employees would be immediately evacuated and nobody would be left to fill his bin bags and meet him.
 

7. This chart-topper takes the biscuit, erm, beer mat...
Australian mother of four Annice Smoel was jailed after friends used her handbag to steal a beer mat during a night out on the island of Phuket. Not only did she not steal the beer mat herself, but she stayed in prison for four days. Now that is more than unfortunate.