Brits escape loss of life sentence after smuggling £300k value of cocaine in Angel Delight
Drug mules Lisa Stocker and Jon Collyer have been freed from their Bali prison hellhole, getting back to the UK within months despite risking the firing squad over their cocaine-smuggling scheme
A British couple who told Indonesian police that they didn’t know their luggage held £300,000 of cocaine have reportedly been freed after only four months behind bars. The pair had initially claimed that they thought they were bringing “treats” to a pal.
Mum-of-three Lisa Stocker, 40, and her partner Jon Collyer, 39, had feared they might be executed under Indonesia’s strict drugs laws but they were sentenced in August to just a year, along with their accomplice Phineas Float, 31.
Their jail time was, surprisingly, slashed even further under laws that give reductions at Christmas and for an independence day holiday. Stocker and Collyer reporterdly boarded flight QR963 from Bali to Doha at 6.50pm on Tuesday (December 30), letting them connect for a UK flight.
A source told The Mirror: “It’s staggering they have been allowed to leave Bali already, given its stance on drug crime. But to see them checking into the premium counter is breath-taking.
“Whichever cabin they ended up in, they can consider it an incredible Christmas gift to have been released so early. They were almost certainly home in time to celebrate New Year’s Eve.”
They were snared trying to bring 992 grams of cocaine stashed in 17 packets of Angel Delight into the paradise island. However, a judge at Denpasar central court chose not to impose the death penalty after they admitted smuggling charges.
The court heard Float agreed to take part in the plot for a “reward” of 500,000 Indonesia Rupiah – the equivalent of just £22.50. Despite Indonesia’s notoriously tough drug laws, Prosecutor Made Umbara urged Judge Heriyanti not to hand down the death penalty in a dramatic show of leniency.
The couple were arrested at Bali’s international airport on February 1 after a routine X-Ray of their luggage detected the suspicious packages. They had travelled from the UK to Bali via Qatar.
The couple told police that they did not know the packages contained the drugs and believed they were delivering British treats to a friend. After their arrest, the dodgy duo turned informants for Indonesian police and lured their accomplice to an ambush.
Float was arrested on February 3 when he turned up at the Grand Mas Airport Hotel carpark to collect the haul. The Mirror understands Float was released from prison on December 5 and held in a detention centre until he was deported on December 10.
An FCDO spokesperson said: “Three British nationals who were detained in Indonesia have now returned to the UK.” Their release and deportation comes just weeks after Brit drugs mule Lindsay Sandiford, 69, was freed after 13 years on death row.
The legal secretary spent more than a decade in Bali’s notorious Kerobokan prison after being caught with £1.6million of cocaine in 2012. Nevertheless, Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper secured a bilateral agreement with the Indonesian authorities to clinch her release in October.
Sandiford was repatriated alongside fellow British national Shahab Shahabadi, 35, who has been serving a life sentence since 2014 after being arrested during a probe into an international drug trafficking network. Both Britons have suffered severe health difficulties, officials say.
The Foreign Office has refused to say if Sandiford will be taken into custody or released immediately now she is home. Nonetheless, Indonesian officials claimed she would be sent to prison after being repatriated back to Britain.
Her “detention will be moved to the United Kingdom” as part of the deal, an official stated, revealing she still faces some time behind bars. The Daily Star has approached the Foreign Office for comment.
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