Woman faces Thai jail term for stealing bar mat

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25505163-29277,00.html

A MELBOURNE mother of four is facing up to five years in a Thai jail after being arrested for stealing a bar mat at a bar in Phuket.
Annice Smoel, 36, from Montrose in Melbourne's north-east, spent four nights in a four-by-four-metre jail with three other inmates before being released on bail.

She was arrested by undercover police after leaving the Aussie Bar with friends while celebrating her mother's 60th birthday.

They alleged she had stolen a bar mat and put it in her handbag.

She told Fairfax Radio News that she is innocent of the theft and said a friend she was with had later confessed to the police to taking the bar mat but she was told to go away.

"I have been treated unfairly and held here for something I didn't do,'' Ms Smoel said.

"They know I didn't do it, they have video evidence and one of the girls who was involved went down to the police on Sunday morning and confessed to the crime and apologised and they told her to go away. They didn't care.''

Police confiscated Ms Smoel's passport.

Her husband Darren is with her in Thailand while her mother is now caring for her four daughters aged 6, 8, 11 and 12.

WTF WHAT BULLSHIT
for a barmat
seriously go waste ur time on something more important eg murderers and rapists and whatnot not someone stealing a barmat
who quite frankly is innocent seeing as how her mate confessed it was her and the video footage proved it wasnt
im so over these countries

lol i heard she went to bathroom n her friends put it in her bag as a joke!!

i bet they dont think its so funny now

Wow! The state of some countries criminal systems are unbelievable. And not even our Embassy can really do alot! I guess we all need to take a lesson from the things other people do overseas!

i think ill just stay in australia LOL

Crazy Crazy!!! I was gobsmacked when I seen this on the news!
Recently I heard she has being freed..