An Australian woman is facing a jail term of five years after she lost her temper in front of police officers in Patong. What started out as a practical joke has become a nightmare for 36 year old Annice Smoel from Melbourne, Australia.

She was arrested on May, 2 in Patong after an undercover police officer found a bar mat in her handbag while drinking at The Aussie Bar. Two friends had placed the mats in her bag as a practical joke.

The friends, who were travelling with her to celebrate a birthday, have apologized in a sworn statement for hiding the bar mat. They characterize the episode as a “silly joke”.

“What started off as a very silly joke has turned into a very serious matter and for that we are sincerely apologetic,” said the two women, identified as Samantha and Jodie.

According to Thai police the woman tried to run away down Bangla road with the police chasing her. She was taken into custody where she continued verbally assaulting the head of the Patong police.

She spent two nights in jail before being released. The police have confiscated her passport and she has to report every two weeks until the trial.

Phuket police Maj. Songserm Preecha confirms Smoel had been charged with stealing a bar mat and that she faced a maximum of five years in prison and a fine of up to 10,000 Baht. He said he could not comment further on the case.

In a conference call on Tuesday to media, Smoel, confirmed the facts, but said it was all a misunderstanding.

“If they wanted to teach me a lesson, they have well and truly done it,” she said.

Bar owner Steve Wood told Fairfax Radio they all the police wanted to do was chastise her.

“But she did a runner on them — the police had to chase her down the beach”, said Wood.

The case is getting media attention around the world.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has expressed sympathy with the mother-of-four. Mr Rudd was reminded of his own infamous alcohol-affected night at a strip club in New York, by an interviewer on Melbourne radio.

“I think we’re all human, and we all make mistakes and I’m one of them,” he said.

Mr. Rudd said Australian officials in Thailand were doing everything practicable about the case.

Her husband, Darren, says the Australian Government is offering little help and said it was "nowhere near good enough".

"If I didn’t call them and keep following things up I wouldn’t have heard a thing", said the husband.

On behalf of her siblings Daisy, 11, Zoe, 8, and Lilly, 6, their big sister, 12-year-old Zhian, pleaded: "Please, please, please, Mr Rudd . . . let our mummy come home."

Australian news organizations give a warning to Australian tourists planning to visit Thailand.

“Do we really not understand that our raucous manners and big mouths don’t charm many foreigners? Do we really need to be told that abusing and lording it over Asian police and judges in particular buys us nothing but trouble? Let’s lay off giving our usual moral lectures to the Thais. Given the kind of Australians they see in Patpong, Pattaya and Phuket – and who I’ve talked to in their jails – I doubt they’d be impressed”, writes Andrew Bolt in The Herald Sun.