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AIBU?

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Original poster

to hope the Foreign Office don't waste any time on Laura Plummer...

684 replies

PiffleandWiffle · 26/12/2017 22:09

She was stupid enough to smuggle drugs into a country against their laws, got caught & got sentenced.

BBC Link

Cue the predictable wailing & cries of "it's not fair" from the family!

Personally, I'd rather the Foreign Office spent it's time trying to help people who are genuinely in trouble abroad rather than idiots drug smugglers....

OP posts:
StatelessPrincess · 28/12/2017 11:24

pinkmagic1 I have also seen dozens of British woman/North African man relationships and I have never understood how the majority of those women believe their relationships are genuine, it's usually really obvious that they are not.

lljkk · 28/12/2017 11:27

Interview on 5Live just now (so about 11:10-11:25 today), with LP's dad.
The Ts were in a clear plastic bag, so incorrectly reported to be in paracetamol boxes.
Colleague had huge excess to donate due to a repeat NHS prescription they didn't use.
LP should be released by Xmas 2018, with good behaviour, etc.

ohfortuna · 28/12/2017 11:27

Is that not in many ways analogous to the British older man with young attractive Thai woman trope?

SandyDenny · 28/12/2017 11:32

Lljkk - I came on to pst the same thing.

Now maybe the Dad is deluded but to me he sounded like he genuinely believed what he was saying. I couldn't follow his Maths on the months of her sentence but he seemed very matter of fact about her being in prison until this time next year.

It's frustrating not to know for sure if the tablets were in plain sight or disguised as something else but I tend to agree with his description of her as being totally naive.

The story about the colleague was believable too, no wonder she's refusing to have anything to do with it. I can totally imagine the situation in their office, LP talks about Egyptian bf, colleague listens every day, thinks she's being helpful by offering her spare pills. I could be wrong but I believe the family on this.

FitBitFanClub · 28/12/2017 11:34

ohfortuna, I'd hazard a guess that a fair few of those relationships aren't what most would call 'genuine' either.

ohfortuna · 28/12/2017 11:36

Yes I know
as I said I feel the two relationship dynamics are analogous

Eltonjohnssyrup · 28/12/2017 11:37

I don't see why her relationship wouldn't be genuine. She's young and attractive. It's not like she's one of these 70 year old ten ton tessies with no teeth who suddenly takes up a 21 year old toyboy who looks like a model is it?

Puzzledandpissedoff · 28/12/2017 11:37

Colleague had huge excess to donate due to a repeat NHS prescription they didn't use

To donate??!!! I appreciate they're scampering along the margins of the surreal, but who in their right mind thinks Tramadol is something you donate??

FitBitFanClub · 28/12/2017 11:42

I don't see why her relationship wouldn't be genuine.

I suppose it depends what you mean by 'genuine.'

(Sorry, ohfortuna, I missed the 'analogous' bit. Flu meds!)

makeourfuture · 28/12/2017 11:44

It's frustrating not to know for sure if the tablets were in plain sight or disguised as something else

Well the thing is, Egypt, as stated up-thread, practises a different brand of law than England and Wales. I am not at all sure her intent matters in regard to her guilt (as it could in England and Wales). Perhaps as some sort of mitigating factor...

I am more concerned about her having signed some sort of document not interpreted into English.

StatelessPrincess · 28/12/2017 11:46

Eltonjohnssyrup It doesn't matter, most Egyptian men don't want women who dress like that and drink unless there is something in it for them and nobody has an urfi marriage with a woman they respect. He's already married and he works in hotel entertainment I believe which says it all really.

mustbemad17 · 28/12/2017 11:50

Due to a repeat NHS prescription they did not use

I often wondered why our repeat prescription system had changed - I guess this sort of behaviour explains why repeat prescriptions of some meds are difficult to get even with genuine need!

SandyDenny · 28/12/2017 11:50

Makeourfuture - if he can be believed her dad was at pains to point out that she hasn't been found guilty of smuggling as there was no attempt to hide the fact that she and the pills, she was found guilty of possessing them.

I would think that if any country wants to send a message to possible drug smugglers they would make examples of travellers so if there's any evidence of smuggling they'd have pursued that charge too.

I don't know how fair the trial was, I was wondering about the packets following up on the discussion upthread yesterday where it was suggested she was a smuggler. I don't want to be as naive as she is and believe her if it's true that she'd tried to pass the tramadol off as something innocent.

FitBitFanClub · 28/12/2017 11:51

I'd like to know what the boyfriend meant when he said he "was sure" she was innocent. Not "she IS innocent" (even though she isn't).

All very odd. But having read an account of that prison, I do actually feel very sorry for her. Can any of us really say that, if this was our own daughter or close relative, we'd lie low and do nothing?

Babbitywabbit · 28/12/2017 11:58

Yanbu. Of course we’d all feel scared, upset, and desperate if this were our own child. But that doesn’t change the fact she did something criminal, which has far reaching consequences (god knows the knock on impact and ripples from supplying drugs with that kind of market value)

FitBitFanClub · 28/12/2017 12:06

Of course it doesn't change the facts. But there's been a lot of criticism on here about the family and their appearance/attitudes when interviewed.

Ruffian · 28/12/2017 12:08

What a shit thread to start, so vicious. She broke the law and she's going to be made to suffer for it in ways that would be completely unacceptable in our country.

But don't worry your mean soul about it, the FO is notorious for not wanting to 'waste' their time.

LoveVelo · 28/12/2017 12:10

Tramadol can't be donated, it's a class C drug only available with a Doctors prescription (or other healthcare professional that is qualified to prescribe) It's illegal for anyone else to supply it or to give it away, even to friends, even for free.

Oliversmumsarmy · 28/12/2017 12:12

some woman refusing to hand over the prescription she has which could apparently "prove" Laura's innocence

I don't see how someone coming up with a prescription is going to prove that she wasn't trying to take Tramadol into a country that considers it a banned substance.

The family do seem to be a little confused.

FitBitFanClub · 28/12/2017 12:14

If it's also a crime in this country to pass Tramadol around, then this "colleague" is hardly likely to 'fess up. Especially if it was in a work context, whereby they might lose their job. And I also can't see it's relevant to what LP subsequently chose to do with the tablets.

Piggywaspushed · 28/12/2017 12:26

But you can see why LP might think it was basically the same as any old painkiller and that, as she - or someone else- had paid £23 for it, it wasn't really a very big deal. If she herself had never taken Tramadol she was probably pretty ignorant about it. Husband had probably repeatedly told her of his frustration - and pain- at not being able to get it in Egypt.

The bit of the story I don't really believe are the claims that the husband didn't know about any of it. Why the family are still protecting him is up to them, presumably they might as well as it won't do them any good either way.

OfaFrenchmind2 · 28/12/2017 12:28

Stupidity and greed is not a valid defence argument.
She fucked up on many levels, trusting a pretty boy Egyptian conman (com'on, this is western trap 010), accepting to debase herself with this degrading islamic contract, and taking all the risks (and I am sure, a minority of the money) of drug smuggling.

She was actually lucky to have her trial happening quickly, and not have to rot in jail waiting for years for it and having a reduced charge.
Yes, egyptian prison are bad, but being British and white should not be an excuse to go around abroad with no responsibility.

FitBitFanClub · 28/12/2017 12:32

I must say, I had no idea that Tramadol was such a big deal nowadays either, and I used to take it. When I was discharged from hospital after surgery to insert metal rods/pins/plates in my broken leg, I was taking 8 a day, plus 8 cocodamol and 8 Nurofen. I must have been on that prescription for several weeks (huge amounts of pain). I had no idea at the time that there could be an issue of addiction, and just gradually stopped taking them as time went by and the pain subsided.
I wonder what I'd do now.

specialsubject · 28/12/2017 12:33

There is nothing the foreign office can do. When you go to another country you accept their laws while you are there.

This, it seems, is the reason for the 'marriage' - that allowed her to share a hotel room with the man legally.

Piggywaspushed · 28/12/2017 12:42

fitbit taken as we take it in the UK, according to the NHS website there no huge chance of addiction : in fact there is greater caution on this with the more readily available codeine. The website says people are unlikely to get addicted because they are not taking it to achieve a 'high' and so are not addicted to that quality in it.

It obviously is taken recreationally in Egypt (in different quantities one assumes) and so is potentially addictive.

An awful lot of banning of drugs such as codeine , tramadol, ephedrine, though is about preserving a country's own medical industries and pharmaceutical revenues. Not the case for Egypt but certainly true for the US.