The owner of luxe Phuket resort who has courted controversy and government favor was seriously injured last night after he crashed his sports car into a utility pole.
Vorasit Issara, aka Plawan, is in serious condition at a hospital after crashing his Subaru into a power pole at about 8pm on Phuket Town’s Sakdet Road. Rescue workers had to cut the 39-year-old owner of the Sri Panwa Phuket resort from the vehicle
The cause of the crash is not known. Capt. Chatri Chuvichien of the Wichit Police Station said police are investigating.
Vorasit’s five-start resort, which partially government-owned, last week concluded a pilot “Villa Quarantine” program for high-rolling travelers to return to the kingdom and enjoy access to tennis courts, fitness facilities and the beach during quarantine.
The scion of the wealthy and powerful Issara clan was awarded the project not long after his personal attacks on leading student reformers campaigning against the government were widely criticized, drawing scrutiny to his past support for the anti-government movement that paved the way for the military to seize power in 2014.
He said at the time he was unconcerned with the boycott campaign against him and other “salims.”
“If you don’t love [the political] establishment, you better not come to my resort. Don’t be my guest,” Vorasit told Coconuts Bangkok in September.
Nine years ago, he was stabbed twice in the stomach and had his neck slashed during an early morning brawl outside a Phuket nightclub that Hollywood star Jeremy Renner later said was over things he’d said.
“It was a silly, tragic accident that happened to this guy,” Renner later told the Hollywood Reporter of Vorasit back in 2012. The actor said Vorasit had made a comment and “got attacked in a bar fight at 4 in the morning. He was saying stuff, and 20 people jumped on him. I was in flip-flops. I don’t do bar fights. Did he deserve to get stabbed and almost murdered by 20 people? Fuck no.”
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