Nabbed: British Sex Trafficker, That Is, Private Detective

Lots of shady characters are enjoying the freedoms of the Land of the Free. Take Ian Shuttleworth, 42, a former British police officer who worked as a security consultant in Thailand. Enforcer of truth and justice you’d think. Welcome to the Thai Twilight Zone.

Shuttleworth, a former Liverpool traffic policeman, got arrested in his downtown Bangkok apartment on suspicion of trafficking women to the UK to work as prostitutes, as news agencies reported. But Shuttleworth was not only a sex trafficker and security consultant. First and foremost he was a private investigator.

Turns out that Shuttleworth “had set up a security company providing bodyguards to Thailand’s elite,” as AFP quoted police sources. That’s only half of the story. Shuttleworth is the same Shuttleworth who ran a private Bangkok investigation company called Thai-PI, as listed in this Private Investigators Directory:

Thai-PI
Ian Shuttleworth
Private Investigation
Thailand
ian@thai-pi.com
www.thai-pi.com

Shuttleworth, of St Helens, Merseyside, had been living in Bangkok while claiming a disability pension in the UK. And he understands the charges: “The police had to arrest me in the circumstances. They must do their job,” a British paper quoted him.

Tells us a source: “The guy had a lousy reputation as a PI in Thailand and if this means he’s out of the game, better for that industry here. His guilt or innocence on the charges is a matter for the courts.”

www.thai-pi.com is now down pending further investigations. But there’s always Google’s caché, retrieved on May 18th, only hours before Shuttleworth’s arrest: Thai-PI.com – Diligence & Confidentiality Assured.

The “About Us” was saying: “One of the founding partners of Thai-Pi.com, Thailand’s Premier Private Detective Agency, is a retired British Police Detective with nearly twenty years service. The majority of his service was as a Regional Detective working in many areas of criminal detection including murder, drug trafficking, anti-terrorism and intelligence.”

I’d say Shuttleworth, adept of the Thai underworld, had blended perfectly well into that twilight zone between police work and crimes.

Again quoting from the now locked down website:

“In an ever increasing hostile world it is important to ensure your personal safety. It is crucial to surround yourself with the right security personnel, whether your trip to Thailand or the region in general is for business or pleasure it is often best advised to have a well placed, locally knowledgeable yet discreet “shadow.” It is often the case in this region that visitors can run into trouble simply through lack of knowledge of local customs and taboos.”

Well, you can’t accuse Shuttleworth of lack of knowledge of local customs and taboos.

Need a PI in Thailand? Make sure you have that investigator investigated beforehand.