My friend owns a business in Thailand. All legal (49% and 51% Thai owned). He doesn't live here, but comes maybe 2 or 3 times a year on a business visa. He has about 10 Thai staff (1 is his business partner) working in the company All perfectly legal.
So try a business via if you don't intend to live here.
sadly I don't have a UK bank. I tried to transfer from my Thai bank account but my bank refused to transfer. I asked why and was basically told that foreigners can't transfer to emoney accounts in their own name.
It depends entirely on the mood of the officer. I paid duty on used books, cds and some personal objects given to me as gifts. I paid more than they were worth, but I didn't want to lose them.
One of the boxes had been broken open and a few items were missing. No one accepted responsibility.