My son was called an idiot after cocaine was found his wallet at a Thai airport … but he was founded – here is my warning for other Brit holidaymakers

The mother of a man who is held at a Thai airport after a package of cocaine was found in his passport has warned that it can “happen to someone” because she claims that he was “set up”.

Michelle Swain, 57, says that her family went through hell when she got a phone call from her son and say that he had arrived at Phuket Island for his long -awaited vacation to be arrested alone in immigration.

Jamie Louis Swain, then 29, from Stevenage, landed last year at Phuket International Airport with his brother, but was pulled aside when an immigration officer noticed a small plastic bag with white powder while he flashed through his passport to find an empty page to place the Visa stamp.

Officers said that Swain responded with surprise, before he started cursing and shaking, so that the authorities had to perform further inspections and scan his luggage.

He was then arrested the airport, where the police tested the in his passport in his passport and confirmed that it was 0.42 grams of cocaine.

It was said that he would be confronted up to 20 years in prison Thailand‘s Narcotics Act, but after a hearing in July was returned to the UK after he was ordered to pay a fine of 50,000 baht (£ 1,137).

Speaking with MailOnline, his mother has detailed the traumatic incident, claiming that it was a ‘setup’.

Mrs Swain said: ‘He went there with his brother, came through Heathrow, Dubai and came to Thailand.

“His brother came with his passport and then Jamie gave his passport and they said a bag fell out of his passport.

‘People say it is because I am his mother, I don’t believe it, but to get through two airports and the fact that it happened to other people, I just feel that it was a design.

‘I can’t help that, I know I’m his mother, and I’m not crazy, I know they’re doing all of this and it’s all going on, I am not naive, I have three boys.

‘But I just want to get through two airports and then this bag suddenly appears, and he had his passport out all the time, I just think it’s very strange.

“It was less than a gram, it was ridiculous, but it was enough, as our lawyer said, to get money out of you.

‘As I say, I still think [it was set up]I can’t do anything about it, because if that is the case, the airports of Heathrow and Dubai clearly don’t do their work.

“You get comments that say” oh how stupid “, but no, because it wasn’t there. It must have stopped there.

‘I think this is happening more than we know.

‘He is not the only person with which it happened, at least I know three people where it has been exactly what happened to Jamie. It’s just too much coincidence. ‘

Mrs Swain told how when she was reached by people who had reported the same phenomenon from close to empty cocaine packages that were ‘found’ in their passports.

She said that her son was then held in a ‘Hollingsbell’ for about two days before she was held out on bail.

She had flown to Phuket on the same night that he had been held and said that the ‘terrible’ experience had worried that he would be imprisoned in a foreign prison.

Three mother said: ‘I immediately flew away that night.

“He was taken to the police station and then he was placed in a prison. He said it wasn’t in a big prison because he said he could see the sea of ​​it.

“He was fascinated there with a Russian guy, only she two.

“He said there was no water, no food, nothing. “He was about two days there, then he got bail.

‘It was not a high bail amount. He had to stay there then [in Phuket] At least for three months they would not let him go.

“He had a court date at the end of July and he was fined. He was fined and deported, but they could not deport him from there, so he had to go to Bangkok.

‘So he had to get a flight from Phuket to Bangkok, and he was placed in the prison of Bangkok for a few days.

“It wasn’t very nice about what he said. It wasn’t good. He said that everyone in prison was more interested in his story as a Westerner, and they said to him, “You’re not leaving here”. They said they had been there for years.

“He had a square mat and that’s where he stayed a bit. I don’t know how many there were in [the cell]But he said there were individual cells such as Somalis and different religions, and they said: “If you misunderstand there, you go in there and you don’t want to go there”.

“There were fights in it.

“But he managed to get through it. He flew back in early August. ‘

Although the first reports said that the 29-year-old to 20 years behind bars could be confronted, he was released on bail for the Equivalent of £ 250, and his fine came to slightly more than £ 1,000.

The result came as a relief for Mrs. Swain, who said that lawyers had initially warned that the court could hand over a six -month sentence to a year in prison.

Under the Narcotics Act of Thailand, importing cocaine into the country has a maximum prison sentence of 20 years and a fine of £ 43,000 to 108,000 (2,000,000 – 5,000,000 baht).

Cocaine ownership is punishable with a maximum of five years or a fine of a maximum of £ 2,000 (100,000 baht) or both.

They warned others, she said, while the country and the people are ‘beautiful’ and ‘friendly’, travelers must be careful.

She said: ‘It was just meant as a nice holiday. It can happen with all the young boys who go outside. There is nothing you can do, you can be careful, but if that happens, you can’t do anything about it.

‘When I see similar stories now, I feel like the family.

“Until you are in that situation, everyone notes:” Oh you do the crime that you do time “, but if you are in that situation, it is terrible.

‘It is disturbing, especially in another country, you don’t speak Thai.

‘Fortunately our lawyer spoke English. Otherwise I don’t know what we would have done.

‘I don’t know what you do if you don’t have money or have no one there.

‘It is frightening for the young people, it happens outside all the time.

‘It was just a terrible experience, I would not want to pass anyone through that. I would never wish for anyone.

“The care alone was terrible.

‘It’s a shame that he really had to go through that, it can ruin people’s lives. I don’t think they see the damage it can cause the lives of young boys. ‘