The Prime Minister says all available consular assistance is being provided to a Melbourne woman arrested in Thailand for allegedly stealing a bar mat.
Mother of four Annice Smoel, 36, of Montrose in Melbourne's outer east, spent two 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.
Thai police confiscated her passport.
"I've just been advised about this, the Foreign Minister and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade are on top of this case,'' Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told reporters in Melbourne.
"They are providing every level of consular assistance to the family and the individual concerned.''
He said the consular assistance provided to Australians was practical and provided as quickly as possible.
"We take seriously that job, there are one million Australians at any one time officially working or travelling in hundreds of countries around the world,'' he said.
"Let all the facts be established first.''
Ms Smoel told Radio 3AW that the consulate had provided her with a list of lawyers but had told her that the consulate could not interfere in legal proceedings.
"I explained to them that I am innocent but they said that the Thai Government hasn't decided that yet - until I've been to court I haven't been proven innocent,'' Ms Smoel said.
She now faces up to five years in jail and told she was scared she would not see her daughters - aged 6, 8, 11 and 12 - for years.
"I get very scared when I see police. I'm just trying to keep it together, so I can get home," she said.
Thai police say she had stolen a bar mat and put it in her handbag.
Ms Smoel told Radio 3AW this morning that she didn't do it.
She said a friend had confessed to police it was her - and there was video evidence proving her innocence.
"There was video evidence in the bar - I was nowhere near the handbag," she said.
"One of the girls involved went down to the police station on Sunday morning and confessed to the crime and apologised and they (Thai police) told her to go away, they didn't care.
"Apparently the police have 48 days to investigate the crime.
"It's a just a really slow and crazy system.''
In a statutory declaration to Victoria Police, Ms Smoel's friends said they had played a "silly joke'' on Ms Smoel that had backfired.
"We would like to apologise for any harm, inconvenience or any lack of respect on our behalf , this was truly not our intention.
"We were all out drinking and became intoxicated. We put the bar mat into Annice's handbag and she was unaware that we were playing a joke on her.''
The women said the bar mat did not leave the premises and that they intended to return the bar mat to the table.
They said bar staff approached Ms Smoel and asked her to open her bag. When staff saw the bar mat, they called the police.
Ms Smoel said police had confiscated her bag and she was having difficulty communicating with police and lawyers.
She said Australian consular officials have offered very little assistance.
She said she had spent two nights in a small cell.
"It's everything you read about, it's four metres by four metres, concrete slab, big bars," she said.
"The toilet makes you feel sick just to look at, no toilet paper.
"They would bring food twice a day, it was food from the street."
Ms Smoel, whose husband has flown to Thailand to be with her, said she now just wanted to get home to her children.
"I'm OK, I'm hanging in there, I don't feel like I can really deal with what's happened until I get home with my kids and I'm just trying to hang in there and do it one day at a time and get home."
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told reporters today that consular officials were "providing every level of consular assistance to the family and the individual concerned".
He said the consular assistance provided to Australians was practical and provided as quickly as possible.
"We take seriously that job, there are one million Australians at any one time officially working or travelling in hundreds of countries around the world," he said.
"Let all the facts be established first.''
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said consular officials from the Australian embassy in Bangkok were aware of the arrest.
"DFAT in Canberra have provided extensive consular assistance to the woman and her family,'' a DFAT spokeswoman said.
"A court hearing for the woman was scheduled for May 18, the embassy is seeking the outcome of that hearing.''
Source: theage.com.au
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