- Man brought cash from Thailand to buy UK property
By Damien Gayle
Last updated at 12:04 PM on 20th October 2011
An elderly National Express passenger was today counting the cost after his 70,000 life savings were stolen from a bag left in the coach's hold.
The victim, a man aged in his 80s, had stowed the black hold-all stuffed with cash into the luggage area of the coach after getting off a flight at Heathrow Airport.
But by the time he reached the coach's final destination in Portsmouth, Hampshire, the money, which was in Australian dollars and Thai baht, was gone.
Cost: A National Express coach on waiting at The Hard Coach Station, Portsmouth, where the elderly man found his bag had gone. (File photo)
The man had brought the money over from his home in Thailand with a view to purchasing a property in the UK, a spokesman for Hampshire Police said.
They are urging shopkeepers and bankers to be vigilant of anyone trying to change a large quantity of the foreign currencies.
The coach left Heathrow at 4.45pm on Tuesday, stopping at Winchester by King Alfred's statue around 6.30pm, Southampton Coach station about 7.15pm.
Shortly after it stopped at Southampton University before arriving at The Hard in Portsmouth around 8pm, where the man discovered the money had been taken.
The spokesman said that it was when the man looked in the hold for his bag with the driver of the coach that he discovered it was missing.
Life savings: Police are asking shopkeepers and bankers to be vigilant of anyone changing large quantities of Thai baht, like above, or Australian dollars
PC Leigh Waller of Portsmouth Central police station said: 'We want to hear from anyone who was on the coach, to eliminate them from our investigation.
'We would also like to be contacted by anyone else who may have been at any of the stopping points along the journey.
'The bag may have been innocently taken as a mistake, but there was no replacement bag left in its place.
'In case the bag has been stolen, we'd also alert shopkeepers and bankers to the possibility the thief may try to change a large quantity of Australian dollars or Thai baht into UK currency in the near future.'
Hopefully this person declared the money when he left Thailand and done the same when he entered the United Kingdom; legal paperwork completed, he then can think about compensation!!! Poor old soul.
- A Barth, Windsor, 20/10/2011 18:14
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