Brit who dealt drugs in Thailand complains about ‘torture’ of prison sentence

[snoop1130 2,463]

Brit who dealt drugs in Thailand complains about ‘torture’ of prison sentence

by Zoe Drewett

 

 

A British man says going to prison for dealing drugs in Thailand was ‘torture’.

 

Jimmy Kelly was sentenced to 30 years but spent just three behind bars for selling crystal meth at the bar he owned in the southeast Asian country.

 

His sentence was dramatically cut because his brother Gary paid £80,000 in life savings, but Kelly says he had a ‘hellish’ time in prison where he was attacked and lost three teeth.

 

Full Story: https://metro.co.uk/2019/01/23/brit-dealt-drugs-thailand-complains-torture-prison-sentence-8378948/

[Happy Grumpy 5,092]

3 minutes ago, snoop1130 said:

His sentence was dramatically cut because his brother Gary paid £80,000 in life savings,

Cough

[KhunFred 1,007]

Thai prisons are horrible. This is not news to anyone who pays attention, I feel for anyone banged up in these places. There are much worse things than drugs done here and most go unpunished. Thailand and most other countries have followed America's drug hysteria into a morass of cruelty to their own people. Prisons deter nothing and solve nothing. Drug use is usually its own punishment. Decriminalization is the only sane solution.

[rascalman 162]

Play with the bull you get the horns! No sympathy here! 

[darksidedog 31,055]

I am in two minds here. I visit lots of people stupid enough to get involved with drugs here and try to help their life be a little easier, but Thai jails are seriously nasty. His brother obviously paid his fine so he could be sent home under the prisoner transfer treaty, a thing I personally hate because I know a few lads serving stupid sentences who cant do the same, as their families don't have the money. If you don't pay the fine, sometimes millions of baht, you are effectively held to ransom without transfer to serve it all.

He knew the consequences and still did it, so he has very little sympathy from me.

I have a lot for some of the lads I visit, who were not doing anything wrong, simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. One doing 39 years for something another person openly admits was his, not the guy I visit. His family don't have 1,300,000 baht, so he is screwed.

Murderers and rapists serve far less time than people caught with small amounts of drugs. The Supreme Court has admitted the war on drugs has failed and a new approach is needed, but still every day people get 30, 40, 50 years. It is crazy, especially since the jails are overflowing already and most are not getting out for half a lifetime or more.

It it torture? Yes it is. Is that right? No it isn't. Welcome to Thailand.

[Dmaxdan 3,604]

Oh dear, how sad, never mind. Dance with the devil and you're sure to get burned.


Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect

[Scouse123 1,995]

16 minutes ago, darksidedog said:

I am in two minds here. I visit lots of people stupid enough to get involved with drugs here and try to help their life be a little easier, but Thai jails are seriously nasty. His brother obviously paid his fine so he could be sent home under the prisoner transfer treaty, a thing I personally hate because I know a few lads serving stupid sentences who cant do the same, as their families don't have the money. If you don't pay the fine, sometimes millions of baht, you are effectively held to ransom without transfer to serve it all.

He knew the consequences and still did it, so he has very little sympathy from me.

I have a lot for some of the lads I visit, who were not doing anything wrong, simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. One doing 39 years for something another person openly admits was his, not the guy I visit. His family don't have 1,300,000 baht, so he is screwed.

Murderers and rapists serve far less time than people caught with small amounts of drugs. The Supreme Court has admitted the war on drugs has failed and a new approach is needed, but still every day people get 30, 40, 50 years. It is crazy, especially since the jails are overflowing already and most are not getting out for half a lifetime or more.

It it torture? Yes it is. Is that right? No it isn't. Welcome to Thailand.

 

 

A few points to raise here as this case or the reporting of it, something is definitely not right.

 

You CANNOT pay a fine and have your sentence reduced, never! Not in a drugs case.

 

Unless he has brought in a lawyer who has gone to the appeal court and paid under the table for a sentence reduction and also paid monies to the prosecutor as to ensure he does not appeal to the Supreme court. That is the only way he could have done this if it has been reported correctly and we have the real story.

 

When a fine is imposed as well as a prison sentence, what the prisoners usually do is to wait until an Amnesty and then they have the fine cancelled instead of a reduction in the amount of time to be served. The majority of prisoners do this as very few have money to pay the huge fines.

 

The rest is just crap from him to try to get a few quid out of the newspapers for the story or write a silly book, well, that horse has well and truly been flogged to death.

Edited January 23 by Scouse123

[jabis 777]

"Kelly was released in 2014 after serving three years and four months in prison. He now lives near his brother in Watford, Hertfordshire where he has become a pub darts champion."

Slightly better than being a meth-addict in South East-Asia 

[darksidedog 31,055]

11 hours ago, Scouse123 said:

 

 

A few points to raise here as this case or the reporting of it, something is definitely not right.

 

You CANNOT pay a fine and have your sentence reduced, never! Not in a drugs case.

 

Unless he has brought in a lawyer who has gone to the appeal court and paid under the table for a sentence reduction and also paid monies to the prosecutor as to ensure he does not appeal to the Supreme court. That is the only way he could have done this if it has been reported correctly and we have the real story.

 

When a fine is imposed as well as a prison sentence, what the prisoners usually do is to wait until an Amnesty and then they have the fine cancelled instead of a reduction in the amount of time to be served. The majority of prisoners do this as very few have money to pay the huge fines.

 

The rest is just crap from him to try to get a few quid out of the newspapers for the story or write a silly book, well, that horse has well and truly been flogged to death.

Nice post, though sadly out of touch with reality in one respect. While I agree that am amnesty used to totally remove the fine, you are overlooking the fine print of the prisoner transfer treaty, which states that a receipt must be shown to prove that all fines have been paid prior to a prisoner being transferred home. So, while the fine is "technically"removed in an amnesty, you don't get a receipt for it, so it is for all intents and purposes, still there. This has been the case for the last two years, and has had Embassies screaming that prisoners are being held to ransom for the fine money.

So, in this case, his brother paid the fine. It did not reduce his sentence, but allowed him to be transferred home, where he got out quickly. Spare a thought for those whose families do not have that sort of money, who are being kept hostage for it.

Thai people do have the fine removed in the same way in an amnesty, but they do not have to show  a receipt at any point, for anything, so it is a totally unfair practice.

I repeat, Welcome to Thailand, where money talks, and allows the rich to get off lightly.

If you want to PM me, I will put you in contact with many families who will confirm that what I am saying is gospel truth.

Or contact your Embassy, who will also confirm this disgraceful practice.

[TallGuyJohninBKK 13,270]

12 minutes ago, darksidedog said:

So, in this case, his brother paid the fine. It did not reduce his sentence, but allowed him to be transferred home, where he got out quickly.

 

I thought one of the rules for the international prisoner repatriation program was either a] you couldn't be eligible until you've served some portion of the original sentence in Thailand, and/or b] once sent back to your home country, they had to hold you for the term of the Thai sentence.

 

But all things considered, this guy managed to get free reasonably quickly (relative to an original 30 year sentence).

[darksidedog 31,055]

2 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

I thought one of the rules for the international prisoner repatriation program was either a] you couldn't be eligible until you've served some portion of the original sentence in Thailand, and/or b] once sent back to your home country, they had to hold you for the term of the Thai sentence.

 

But all things considered, this guy managed to get free reasonably quickly (relative to an original 30 year sentence).

Partially accurate. Yes, you do have to serve a minimum term here, one third, or four years normally. Once home you are eligible for reductions on amnesties here, and UK reductions also, and most importantly, parole, which given the mental sentences dished out here are normally given at the first possible moment. However, you have to get there first and if you don't have stinking wads of cash, that is no longer happening.

It pisses me off that this guy has been super lucky, but is now wailing that he has been through hell. Partially perhaps, but of his own making, and he was rescued by his brother, when many, often totally innocent, are going through hell for real.

[TallGuyJohninBKK 13,270]

19 minutes ago, darksidedog said:

Partially accurate. Yes, you do have to serve a minimum term here, one third, or four years normally.

Yes, I was remembering something like that.... But of course, 4 years isn't one-third of a 30 year sentence. So I was confused how he'd managed to get transferred so early in a LONG Thai sentence.

 

[NCC1701A 22,752]

2 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Jimmy Kelly was sentenced to 30 years but spent just three behind bars for selling crystal meth 

crystal meth is poison. should have been executed.

 

but he was worth £80,000.

 

‘Now, I’d taken a bar over and I’d become a pimp. I didn’t realize what I was getting myself into.’

 

you rarely hear bar owners admit to this.

Edited January 23 by NCC1701A

[chickenslegs 8,076]

1 hour ago, darksidedog said:

I am in two minds here. I visit lots of people stupid enough to get involved with drugs here and try to help their life be a little easier, but Thai jails are seriously nasty.

I applaud you for the prison visits, etc. in Thailand. Even stupid people deserve humane treatment. 

Like you, I was also in two minds about whether this man deserved to get off so lightly - until I read this...

 

Quote

When the bar next door went up for sale, he tried to sell more of the drug so he could take it over.  He bought 200 grams – a ‘ridiculous amount’ and sold it for £26,000 which was enough to buy the bar.

Sheer greed.

 

IMHO he should have served a larger proportion of his sentence back in the UK, where prison conditions are reasonable.

 

3 years in prison for running a pub that sells meth, then using the profits to buy another pub to do the same. Even in the liberal UK, that would be regarded as an unusually light sentence.

 

It would be interesting to learn exactly how he had his 30-year sentence commuted to just 3 (rhetorical question, obviousy ฿฿).

[Kadilo 4,175]

 Can’t see his book being a best seller. 

Typical greedy dumb Brit who now wants some kind of sympathy.