EXCLUSIVE: HUA HIN’S AWFIE BIG HOUSING NIGHTMARE SCOT

TAKE THE HIGH ROAD IF YOU MEET THIS MAN ALONG THE WAY.

 If you give him cash he might just say ‘I’m skint’-

This is David Alan McDonald. He is a property developer, and man about town in Hua Hin, Thailand, and has no money. At least that’s the stock answer he gives to people who complain when they are ripped off. 

In Hua Hin he has built several estates for  foreigners. The ones here are called Orchid Villas, Orchid Villas Annexe, Jasmine Gardens, and The Vineyards.

They are all in the Nongkae area of Hua Hin and without exception they have become veritable nightmares for a lot of good people who wanted to retire in Thailand and simply live the quiet life in the sun.

Many are Australians and Brits, but there are also French, Dutch and Germans.

McDonald laughs at the law or perhaps with it. In Thailand the law works in his favour. He knows that if people give him money he may never have to give it back. People have won court cases against him, and he pleads poverty. Nothing is in his name. Its in the name of Thai friends – And of course he’s not skint.

People, old people, have lost their life savings with this guy – His attitude. ‘Tough luck. Business is Business’.

Not much stops him driving down to the  ‘Clansman’, ‘The U Turn’ or ‘The Lost Bar’ in Hua Hin for a wee tickle with the lassies.

But why not? He’s a single man and most of the properties are in the name of a former Bintabat Hua Hin bar girl, who does everything he says.

McDonald from Edinburgh, Scotland, is aided by another Scotsman from Falkirk, though his family is from Stenhousemuir.

Its football team is often referred to by Scottish kids as ‘Stench House Manure’ – and a bad smell follows this man wherever he goes.

His name is Brian Goudie, already featured heavily on this site, a phony barrister who has set up a law firm – Alba Laws – which he operates out of a pub called the ‘Jaggy Thistle’ in the Thai resort of Pattaya.

Brian Goudie

McDonald operates under the names of the following companies. They will of course have Thai directors etc., but most will know nothing about the business. They are nominees and an ex-girlfriend. So take note:

So now let’s look at the properties –

Orchid Villas Annexe (10 properties- unlicensed)

Well here’s Orchid Villas Annexe. I don’t think the houses look like the ones in the brochures.

Orchid Annexe

Look like a building site or an area that’s been deserted because of an anthrax scare?

But Macdonald sold these houses taking massive deposits from people who answered ads.  They were never completed.

They were billed as having swimming pools and jaccuzzis.

He apparently ran out of money. No, actually he ran out of people giving him money so he had to start a new project.

He had the money to start that and again that does not stop him driving a series of cars and getting plastered down in the town’s red light areas. I am puzzled as to what he does down there, because he often never seems to finish what he starts in his business life.

These properties are now up for auction,  but those who invested stand to get little back.

Jasmine Gardens: 12 properties

This estate was started in 2004 – that’s eight years ago. The Forth Railway Bridge has been repainted many times in the meantime. He never completed the construction here either.

It’s been the subject of several legal actions.  Five of the 12 owners are now completing or have completed the work at their own cost. And here he pulled a stunt, which is a familiar one always pulled by unscrupulous foreign property developers throughout Thailand.

Started 12 years ago

The owners of course found out that they did not have control of the common areas and services.
McDonald remained in control of the electricity and water services, and as is always the case fixed his own rates!

Here we go again, names like Richard Haughton and Norbert Verweyen come immediately to mind. Then he tried to sell the common areas for an exorbitant price.

There are still on-going actions by two owners – one house is being auctioned because McDonald could not or would not complete,– but the good news is that the owners have now finally kicked out Mcdonald and can run their own estate thanks to an order issued at Prachuap Khiri Kan Provincial Court.

The Vineyards – 22 properties

Here’s another uncompleted project. And he has mortgaged and used the uncompleted properties as security for loans or that’s what he says to anyone who wants to make a claim on them in lieu of money he owes.

The Vineyards – Corked!

All the properties had to be completed at the owners’ own expense some having to pay up to 4 million baht (US$130,137) extra.

Aye but it’s good for locals to park their cars in though

When the owners moved in the properties did not even have building permits. It cost them a fortune to get this done themselves.

Orchard Villas – 38 Properties

This property is actually finished and has been referred by people in Hua Hin as ‘The Ghetto’.  Well they never got their club-house etc but at least they got a home.

Orchid Villas Clean-up – Owners were threatened with arrest for cleaning up their common areas.

McDonald is still in control and there are long legal battles going on in Prachuap Khiri Kan Court.

Bernadette Desmers

In short McDonald maintains this property when he chooses to.  A lot of the time it has been left overgrown.

The owners have been subject to sporadic cuts of water and electricity services when they refuse to pay bills.

They have been withholding money for incomplete work and snagging.

When recently the owners made a collection to pay for a gardener to clean up the common areas McDonald used Brian Goudie and Alba Laws to drag a couple of committee members down to the local police station.

French retiree Madame Bernadette said: “The estate was a complete mess. McDonald did nothing. He cuts our electricity off. We get court orders to re-instate it.

“We were getting a snake infestation and had a collection to pay for gardeners. McDonald and Goudie turned up on the second day with police.

“At the police station Goudie called me a prostitute. He said by taking money from residents to get the place cleaned up I was behaving like a street walker. He was a disgusting little man.  But the police were on the side of McDonald and we had to agree we could not clean up our estate.

McDonald laughing all the way to ‘a friend’s bank’

“Its very sad to see the Thai authorities supporting men like this.”

So much for ‘L’Auld Alliance’.

It might be a bit tedious to list all the cases McDonald has at Prachuap Court – but I can say one is brought by a couple who bought 3 houses, then needing funds asked McDonald to sell them for him.

He did – and kept the cash. They have been fighting for years.

David Allan Mcdonald, 42,  has a criminal record.

Two years ago he entered the house of one of his buyers at night and seriously attacked him, but an initial investigation for attempted murder was reduced to assault.

Even today the victim, Scots born Australian John McAllister, is scared to talk about Black Case 3255/52 and Red Case 3261/53. He still has property on McDonald’s estates.

Macdonald’s so called  lawyer has a criminal record too of course. What else would you expect of a man, who purely for his own greed, would do anything possible to delay justice for the foreign victims. Its not as if he’s following his own career. He knows as a pretend lawyer he can make lots of money out of foreigners – and the Thais may never cotton on.

Under the name Brian Goldie he was jailed for six years in Australia for defrauding the mining company, which he had conned into giving him a job as an account executive. He fled there from Scotland as an investigation began into an alleged fraud of the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Goudie, nicknamed’ The Devil’s Advocate’ by the Scottish Sunday Mail earlier this year, wheedles himself into the property market in Thailand and has also been involved in a Coco Resort property management deal in Koh Samui (He was kicked out when he started presenting his million baht bills)

The Coco Resort, initially a joint venture between Norbert Verweyen, of OK Properties, Samui and Briton Alan Sadd, but which Norbert quit crashed badly and Goudie hung around to pick up the pieces.

He is currently trying to represent Brits and others swindled in a property deal in Pattaya .

He has joined the International Bar Association and by using this membership claims to be a fully qualified barrister. Anybody can join the IBA. He also claims to be a former Royal Marines officer.

But Goudie is no lawyer and certainly no officer and gentleman. Never was.  But he speaks very good Thai and claims contacts high up in the Thai Military, Police and Immigration Police.

These could be just claims, but he has had a charmed life in Thailand. He often does the talking in court – his Thai is that good apparently. He has even learned the legal jargon.

The Thai lawyer he carts around with him he pays 5000 a day – 10,000 if is out of town. He charges clients himself 50,000 Thai baht a day – and often demands a deposit of 1 million..

That’s a very good rate for a former apprentice fitter and bank teller.

Macdonald does have cash of course. We have information that he has been continually buying up land in the area. But he’s been paying high prices and the property boom may now be over.

Goudie at police station in Jomtien

That means everyone is going to suffer.

Goudie meanwhile has just returned from a trip from Scotland with he claims documents from the Procurator Fiscal and Crown Office showing he has no criminal record in the United Kingdom.

That must mean another con is coming on.

Any people wanting to know about his criminal past will have to look to Australia – a country which he was asked to leave. If so they will find things like this – his parole report (below) when he was released after being sentenced to six years in jail for fraud in Western Australia.

Meanwhile Mr.Mcdonald, who featured in a DPA housing scandal story a couple of years back,  did not answer phone calls. When contacted by email with a list of questions he said he could not answer until early next week.

Mr.Macdonald still has a right of reply which will be posted below – subject to legal editing – when he takes up the offer.

 

 

WARNING

Link to decision of the Australian Appeals Tribunal which ruled that Goudie. formerly Goldie, could not be described as a person of good character. 

UPDATE:MCDONALD’S ANSWER