Bangkok, October 27: A 30-year-old Australian man arrested in Thailand over the smash and grab theft of a $1 million ring from a jewellery shop in Melbourne says he is innocent.
George Georgiou, from Northcote in Melbourne, was arrested by Thai police in a raid on an apartment in the seaside resort of Pattaya in the early hours yesterday.
Thai police transferred Georgiou to Bangkok where he is being held pending moves to have him extradited to Australia.
The Australian Attorney-General’s Department said the detention in Thailand of Georgiou was in response to an urgent provisional arrest request from Australia.
It was now a matter for Australia to proceed with a formal extradition request, the spokesman said.
The Attorney-General’s Department said Georgiou was wanted by Australian authorities to face prosecution for theft and damage-related offences arising from two separate incidents.
In late March a man dressed all in black and wearing a beanie, smashed the display window at the Hardy Brothers Jewellers in Collins Street, Melbourne grabbing the $1 million ring.
7A copy of the Victoria Police press release had been forwarded to Thai Police in Bangkok.
“I’m innocent; they (the authorities) have questioned me many times (already),” Georgiou said in Bangkok.
Handcuffed and wearing a green shirt and grey shorts he pulled the shirt over his head to prevent Thai media photographing him.
At the official police press conference, several bank account books were on display as well as several pieces of jewellery in small plastic bags.
“I’m a suspect in Australia. I don’t know what’s going on,” Georgiou said.
“I can’t see any evidence. They just want to question me.”
Georgiou said he had served a 10-month prison sentence in Australia for burglary in 2004.
“I had a gambling problem,” he said for the house break-in five years ago.
“I am just a suspect. They are taking me back. I’ve done nothing,” he said.
“They just want to question me. They have waited a long time for me to go back (to Australia),” he said.
Georgiou has been living in Thailand since March.
He said police had already searched his house in Victoria.
—Agencies