By Peter Gregory and Sherrill Nixon
A woman who placed a bar mat in a friend's handbag in a Thai bar says it is ridiculous and appalling that the Melbourne mother-of-four is facing up to five years' jail over the prank.
Annice Smoel, 36, has made an emotional plea for help from the Federal Government after she was charged with theft and spent four nights in jail over the practical joke that backfired in the Phuket club.
A woman, identified only as Kate, said this morning she was one of the friends who confessed to police and staff at the Aussie Bar that she had put the mat in Ms Smoel's bag while Ms Smoel was elsewhere in the club.
"It was just a prank,'' Kate told Radio 3AW.
"She did not [know about it], she was at the other side of the bar at another table with a group of people.''
Kate said Ms Smoel was crying in the bar and at the police station after she was confronted over the incident, but denied she had abused police as alleged by the bar's owner.
She said one of the other women in the group had told police that Ms Smoel had not been responsible for putting the bar mat in her bag, but the police were not interested in her confession.
"I was standing back watching from the other side of the glass [at the station] ... [Annice] was not being abusive to anybody,'' Kate said.
"She was very upset, she was crying, she was very confused and emotional as to what had just happened. It was very full-on, there was a lot of bar staff and police and everyone was in our faces.
"It is absolutely ridiculous, it is just appalling.''
"We're in the hands of the Foreign Minister and our Prime Minister ... and we are reliant on them and we are appealing to them as an average Australian family,'' Gary Smoel told Radio 3AW.
"We're now looking for our senior leaders to come in and bat for us, it's time for Mr Rudd and Mr Smith to stand up and be counted for one of our women overseas.''
Ms Smoel's lawyer, Bernard Murphy, also denied his client was abusive to police.
Her passport confiscated, Ms Smoel was released on bail after four days in jail but might have to wait 14 weeks in Thailand before she appears in court.
Mr Murphy told the Nine Network that the behaviour of the Thai police has been ridiculous.
"We're hopeful that the Thai authorities will listen and understand that their behaviour to date has been completely ridiculous,'' Mr Murphy said.
"To lock up this Melbourne mother for what's effectively 18 days for theft of a bar mat which other people have admitted doing seems simply crazy.''
He said Ms Smoel has told him that she was not abusive to police.
"I have spoken to her and I've spoken to her friends and they all deny it,'' he said.
"She was tearful, she was very upset but, I must say, who cares.
"This is a woman who was arrested wrongly, she was a charged with a crime she didn't commit.
"She had had plenty to drink and if she did get upset that would be entirely understandable.''
Since being arrested early this month, Ms Smoel has missed being with her eldest daughter, who had emergency surgery for appendicitis, and the 11th birthday of her second-eldest.
Her brother-in-law Gary Smoel, who with his wife is caring for the children while Ms Smoel's husband supports her in Thailand, said the 12-year-old was too upset to go to school.
Two other friends, who were travelling with her to celebrate her mother's birthday, have apologised in a sworn statement for hiding the bar mat in what they called a "silly" joke.
The women, named Samantha and Jodie, said in the statement that police were told Smoel was unaware when they placed the mat from the Aussie Bar in Phuket in her bag.
They said police initially let her go, but she was stopped later by bar staff and sent to a police booth. "What started off as a very silly joke has turned into a very serious matter and for that we are sincerely apologetic," the women said.
Yesterday, Ms Smoel described her horror at her time in jail. She said she believed she and her friends had been targeted because they were women "on our own" without a man to talk to police about a bribe.
"If there had...been a man with us to do that for us, then that would have been done and that would have been the end of it."
She said she was not made aware that her husband, Darren, and mother were negotiating for her release.
"I just felt scared and hopeless and alone," she said. "If they wanted to teach me a lesson, they have well and truly done it."
But Aussie Bar owner Steve Wood told 3AW that he was told police had chased Ms Smoel to the beach, and that she had been disrespectful to a senior policeman.
"I think it's more an attitude problem than a crime problem," he said.
Mr Wood said the bar had not pressed charges over the missing mat, which he said was worth $50 or $60.
Darren Smoel said he would not return home without his wife.
Late yesterday, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Australian authorities were providing consular support and had contacted the Thai Government.
Premier John Brumby said the State Government was doing all it could to bring Ms Smoel home. "She's a Victorian and we want to get her back," Mr Brumby said.