Couple fake Thai mugging to raise more than $17,000
Michael Laverty and his wife Denise, a couple from the UK, have been accused of faking a mugging in Thailand to raise more than $17,000 through crowdfunding.
The pair launched the fundraising campaign to pay for hospital bills after the army veteran suffered multiple leg fractures, launching a crowdfunding page where they pleaded for more than $17,000 (£10,000) “to get them home”.
Mr Laverty claims to have been the victim of a mugging in a marketplace when his wife ventured into a bar to use the bathroom, but Thai police say CCTV tells a different story.
“The man’s story... it didn’t happen," Phuket Tourist Police Captain Ekkachai Siri told local reporters.
Police have released CCTV footage from a random hotel showing Mr Laverty venturing into a random hotel, trying to open several doors before entering a room.
From there, he reportedly threw himself off a balcony.
“CCTV shows him jumping off the edge of a hotel balcony. Staff heard him shouting and called an ambulance," Captain Siri added.
"This was on Saturday night, tourist police received a report from his wife on Saturday morning that said he had been attacked.
"We took that claim very seriously and investigated it, but it did not take long for the story to become clear.”
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