The families of Kiwi brothers Hamish and Mattson Day are reeling after the pair were arrested and jailed in Thailand. Video / Mike Scott
Official documents from Thai courts show brothers Hamish and Mattson Day faced three years in jail for their holiday misdemeanours.
The documents show $148,000 was paid to the Thai police officer the Waikato pair admitted assaulting.
The Thai police officer asked the court to grant the Day brothers a light sentence.
The sons of wealthy Waikato couple Laurence and Katrina Day paid a Thai police officer $148,000 in “compensation” ahead of being sentenced in a Phuket court and released from prison to return to New Zealand, a judgment in the case states.
Brothers Hamish and Oscar MattsonDay were told by the Phuket Provincial Court they faced three-year prison sentences after an altercation with a police officer while on holiday in March, the judgment said.
But that same police officer pleaded with the court - after being paid $148,000 - to deliver a lighter sentence, it said.
The judgment said the “compensation” payment of 3 million baht, additional fines worth $8000 and the time already spent in prison “should be enough for both defendants to learn and be aware” they need to obey the law in Thailand.
The Day brothers have issued a statement to the Herald confirming they paid $74,000 each to the police officer but denied the substance of the judgment, saying they pleaded guilty because Mattson Day’s health was deteriorating - potentially fatally - in prison.
Hamish and Mattson Day on the brothers' trip to Thailand during which they were arrested.
Hamish and Mattson Day were holidaying in Phuket, Thailand, when a roadside altercation with a police officer led to almost four months in custody.
Extraordinary video that went around the world showed Mattson Day wrestling with police Senior Sergeant Major Somsak Nueaid on the ground at the roadside while Hamish Day watched on, holding the police officer’s pistol.
Their families were braced for the possibility they might be locked up for years with Hamish Day’s wife Rebecca telling the Herald during their incarceration:
“What is our son going to do? Boys need their dad. There will be some things where I will try my best but I can’t replace his dad, as much as I will give it everything.
“I just want to get him home. And I just want Jake to have his daddy again.”
Hamish and Mattson Day's immediate family, pictured when the pair was locked up in Thailand.
From left: Their mother Katrina Day, Nikki Gray, who has two children with Mattson Day, Hamish Day's wife Rebecca, and the brothers' father Laurence. Photo / Mike Scott
The Day brothers had been in Thailand on a sibling trip to catch up after marrying and raising their own families. Their plan had been to surf, visit cable wake parks and seek medical treatments for old sporting injuries at one of the private hospitals in Phuket.
A week into the trip - and just an hour after calling home to chat with their children - the men had been arrested.
The details around the return of the Day brothers to New Zealand had been unknown until now, with the Herald obtaining the court judgment and having it translated by a certified interpreter.
The King’s judgment
The judgment, headed with the words “In the Name of His Majesty The King”, was delivered by magistrates Sakchai Yodsri and Kriengsak Rodphunchu.
It recounts the events leading up to the pair’s arrest, to which it said the Day brothers “confessed”.
It said Somsak Nueaid, referred to as “the victim”, was “performing his duties … to look for lawbreakers” at a five-way traffic checkpoint at Chalong Intersection in the Mueang Phuket district of Phuket Province.
The Day brothers rode up to the checkpoint on separate motorcycles when Somsak Nueaid began waving them down “to stop the motorcycles for inspection” it said.
The judgment said the men were “revving up the engines and rode both motorcycles out of the checkpoint at high speed”, avoiding the officer.
“This action violated the traffic signals,” it said.
When the officer caught up to the Day brothers to arrest them, the judgment said “they resisted by using violent force”.
A still from a video showing brothers Mattson Day and Hamish Day in an altercation with a Thai police officer in Phuket, Thailand. The officer's pistol can be seen in Hamish Day's hand as Mattson Day wrestles on the ground. Photo / Thapapong Trs
“The defendants wrestled with the victim and did not consent for inspection. As a result, the victim injured his left fingers, left knee and neck. The injuries were severe with significant pain and [he was] unable to carry out normal activities for more than 20 days.”
At this point, the judgment said the Day brothers “jointly bribed the victim by offering their assets to influence him not to arrest them which was an unlawful act”.
It said the bribe was refused.
Notably, the judgment does not make reference to the Senior Sergeant Major’s pistol.
It said the men were found guilty of the crimes of obstructing an officer in the course of his duties “by using violent force” and “assaulting an officer while performing his duties causing serious injuries”.
The latter brought the most severe punishment which carried a maximum of four years in prison and a 40,000 baht ($1976) fine.
The charge of attempting to bribe an officer to dissuade him from carrying out his duties carried a two year maximum sentence and a fine, also of 40,000 baht ($1976).
The $148,000 compensation payment was almost 20 times the $7,904 in fines they were ordered to pay.
The brothers’ confession
“Both defendants confessed, which was beneficial to the investigation. For this, the punishment will be reduced by half,” the judgment said.
The judgment said the victim had fully recovered and the Day brothers had spent almost four months in custody and “have paid 3,000,000 baht compensation to the victim which he is satisfied with and did not want to file a civil claim”.
“The victim asked the court to punish them with a lighter criminal penalty.”
The three-year prison sentence was then suspended for two years with no probation order made.
Police have previously said the men were now banned from travel to Thailand.
The Herald understands Auckland consultant and troubleshooter Matt Blomfield was at the centre of efforts to get the men home.
Troubleshooter Matt Blomfield has developed a crisis management business and is understood to have been involved in the Day brothers' release. Photo / Doug Sherring
Blomfield has developed a business over a decade offering business and legal support, along with crisis management.
In a statement issued through Blomfield, Hamish and Mattson Day said the content of the court judgment was not true.
“We respectfully but firmly deny the account of events outlined in the court judgment, as it fails to reflect what truly occurred.
“The prison conditions, as expected, were extremely harsh, characterised by severe overcrowding, malnutrition, rampant illness, a large gang presence and death.”
The statement said the brothers were “determined” to defend the charges “as we knew them to be false” but pleaded guilty because of fears for Mattson Day’s life after his health deteriorated in prison.
They said by that stage the prosecution had dropped “the majority of and the most serious charges”.
“We paid approximately $74,000 each to the Police Officer. We then were then able to return home.
“Once we returned home, Oscar (Mattson) was diagnosed with severe tuberculosis, which caused his lung to collapse and required him to urgently go into an acute care room at Waikato Hospital where they drained litres of fluid from his lungs.
“If Oscar (Mattson) had remained in prison, he would have most likely died.”
Thai concern about tourism industry
Australian National University associate professor Nick Cheesman said the judgment appeared to reflect a 2005 law change that allowed “injured parties” in particular cases to “seek compensation from the accused”.
“However, one effect, whether intended or not, is that it allows wealthy and influential people to escape or reduce prison time by having their victims accept compensation.
“So that’s one factor in this case. And the other is that the men were tourists.”
Cheesman said Thai authorities were “highly alert to any damage to reputation that could affect the massive and lucrative tourism industry”.
Hamish and Rebecca Day with their son Jake on an earlier trip to Thailand.
Day family’s political and property ties
Laurence and Katrina Day are mainstays of the Waikato business community with a sprawling property empire worth many millions of dollars. Their portfolio included about 60 commercial and residential properties, mainly jointly owned while some were held in ownership with others.
The couple are devout Christians and gave $1,325,000 to Colin Craig’s Conservative party across 2013 and 2014. The donation came not long after Laurence Day earned $10m through the sale of a private training organisation.
At the time, he told Stuff “I’m thinking to myself, ‘I can leave this money to my kids and it’ll probably wreck them’, just like winning Lotto might”.
“Or I can do something for everyone else’s kids in this country, and that is to leave them a more democratic New Zealand.”
David Fisher is based in Northland and has worked as a journalist for more than 30 years, winning multiple journalism awards including being twice named Reporter of the Year and being selected as one of a small number of Wolfson Press Fellows to Wolfson College, Cambridge. He first joined the Herald in 2004.
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