Page 6 | to hope the Foreign Office don't waste any time on Laura Plummer...

PiffleandWiffle · 2017-12-26T22:09:42+00:00

She was stupid enough to smuggle drugs into a country against their laws, got caught & got sentenced. [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-42483135 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....

SchadenfreudePersonified · 27/12/2017 08:19

I have no sympathy for people who flout the drugs laws of other countries, and then cry when they get caught.

She knew the score, she committed a crime, she pays the penalty.

The people I feel sorry for are one like the "Chennai Six", who spent FOUR YEARS in an Indian jail when working for an anti-piracy firm, despite all their weapons permits etc being in order. If anyone has any sympathy - let it go to people like them - legally doing a job of work to PROTECT commercial shipping against Somali pirates, and arrested and jailed for allegedly straying into Indian waters.

Laura Plummer has got off lightly!

Piggywaspushed · 27/12/2017 08:20

Hmm... we'll see what happens there butchy I guess.

The BBC article doesn't mention that her tramadol had a street value (am guessing here) of £23.

I think this actually may al be helpful to raise awareness amongst more normal travellers of regulations. The Sun of all papers has actually run a useful article mentioning countries where caution is needed and outlining the issues.

ButchyRestingFace · 27/12/2017 08:24

But surely the person who got them needed them themselves for their pain?

Maybe “colleague” bought them off the internet?

Or stockpiled them?

Or stole them?

Or has a drug-making lab at home?

Who knows? It might be that some GP in Hull is feeling slightly hot under the collar but I doubt LP will give a coherent explanation for that at this stage. At least not one we’ll read about in the Daily Mail Guardian.

MassDebate · 27/12/2017 08:24

YANBU. I can't believe her case is getting the airtime it is tbh - she's guilty! I'd far rather see the outcry focused on actual miscarriages of justice such as Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.

ButchyRestingFace · 27/12/2017 08:25

I think this actually may al be helpful to raise awareness amongst more normal travellers of regulations. The Sun of all papers has actually run a useful article mentioning countries where caution is needed and outlining the issues.

Definitely!

Imma gonna go read that article. 👍

Figgygal · 27/12/2017 08:26

She was an idiot she broke the law and had been punished wonder if the "husband" is visiting her?
Going to be a long 3 years hope BoJo doesn't wade in he's got better things to do (or should have).
Silly woman

Roussette · 27/12/2017 08:27

I'm not sure how this woman thought it was OK to do this...

She was carrying drugs for someone else that had not been prescribed for that person
The drugs must have been obtained illegally because of 1.
She was supplying the drugs to someone in a country where that drug is banned because it is used as a heroin substitute.

I imagine she was going to be paid for this and given that any one of the points above could have been discovered with a 10second google search, I don't really have a lot of sympathy and I think she's got away lightly.

My sympathy waned somewhat when the family said 'we are all very glamorous and she looks awful in that prison'. It crossed my mind that she might have broken a nail?!

TBH the ignorance card doesn't really wash with me. The minute I tried to obtain a large amount of pills not for myself and not via a GP, I would know I was doing something dodgy - to then transport them to another country is madness, can anyone be that stupid?

ButchyRestingFace · 27/12/2017 08:32

Going to be a long 3 years hope BoJo doesn't wade in he's got better things to do (or should have).

She’s got to be praying that that useless donkey doesn’t intervene! 🙏

That would probably result in her tariff being increased to life.

I doubt she’ll be able to look on this experience as an excellent opportunity to learn Arabic to level C2 on the European Framework for Languages but it is.

PumpkinPie2016 · 27/12/2017 08:33

I also have limited sympathy for this woman to be honest.

Tramadol is a prescription, controlled drug in the UK - it's not like she bought something off the shelf and took it - it is difficult to get hold of tramadol in the UK and I don't believe anyone is that stupid that they wouldn't realise that taking it to another country for someone it was not.intended for would be ok.

I think, given the country she is in, 3 years is.pretty lenient.

I wonder whether her Egyptian partner stepped forward to explain and help her? Thought not!

IamtheDevilsAvocado · 27/12/2017 08:36

Yes she should be helped by FCO.

Yes she was bloody stupid or coerced? ... I'm not sure why people aren't proposing the latter explanation more? (woman who has a husband.. Who isn't really a husband in local law, gets tricked into sourcing drugs for his 'bad back', that he may well be dealing).

In UK ignorance of the law is no defence, I guess it's similar in Egypt.

I have many medications I've taken all over the world. I took 100 Tramadol into Egypt a few years ago ..I immediately declared this on entry, and all my other medication as we went thru customs. I had copy of script and GP letter...
Relatively smooth... Apart from the customs bloke who was trying covertly to extract a bung from us, although this suddenly stopped when his senior wandered over

Thedietstartsnow · 27/12/2017 08:38

Well I'm sure she will have her wonderful faithful husband waiting for her when she is released,im sure he's campaigning hard for her release...

ButchyRestingFace · 27/12/2017 08:39

My sympathy waned somewhat when the family said 'we are all very glamorous and she looks awful in that prison'. It crossed my mind that she might have broken a nail?

I didn’t hear that.

I just heard the sister roboticslly repeating that the Egyptians had jailed LP for “being kind”.

That was more than enough.

I can’t see this being a case where Amnesty International will ask members to get out their very best writing sets.

theredjellybean · 27/12/2017 08:40

I haven't read the whole thread but will say this is a good example of the dangers of the new booming industry of on line prescribing and online doctors. She could have used either of these methods to legitimately obtain a prescription, and there arw no checks done to stop people doing this multiple times.
Tranadol is prescribed by GPS and if a patient is on max dose of 8per day and gets a month's supply that is over 200 tablets, so it is possible to obtain a large supply but most GPS would or should know their patients who are taking that many and frankly if you arw you probably have chronic pain and would take them not sell them.

RitaMills · 27/12/2017 08:42

Aren't doctors checking up on prescriptions and patients?

Not really, I had a really shit 2015/16 in regards to my health. I had had multiple surgeries and hospitalised with sepsis, it took around 14 months for it all to settle. In that time I had been on Tramadol and all I did was order from my GPs prescription line when I ran out, I used to get a box of 100 every time. In theory I could’ve stock piled them as I was on them a long time but over the year I had had several boxes of 100. I naturally stopped taking them when I didn’t need them anymore. I was also prescribed codeine and used to get given 260 every time I ordered them, that did turn into a bit of a problem for me and I’ve managed to wean myself off them and don’t take it at all anymore but it took around 2 years for my GP to notice that the time frame between orders was getting shorter.

Piggywaspushed · 27/12/2017 08:42

That is awful to be so bitchy about her appearance. There are no pics of what she looks like now. Apparently her physical appearance is greatly changed and there are claims she has been attacked.

The glee some posters express for the idea that she might have 'broken a nail' Awful. Not even worth an emoji.

To be completely honest of my DM bleated at me about not being able to get Tylenol anymore in the US, or not being able to get OTC paracodol, I'd probably stockpile some and take it to her. Not now, obviously.
The woman was 'daft' but to most oblivious Brits, it's not like she heard her husband wanted heroin or cocaine : she clearly had no understanding. You can get tramadol here pretty easily, despite what some PPs say.

greendale17 · 27/12/2017 08:42

My sympathy waned somewhat when the family said 'we are all very glamorous and she looks awful in that prison'.

I’ve seen pictures of the family and glamour outs they are certainly not. Just as deluded and thick as their daughter

Roussette · 27/12/2017 08:46

Butchy, yes this was in November but what her family said...

"We are quite a glamorous family and she looked absolutely shocking,” she said. “Her hair has fallen out and she has a really bad ear infection which has caused her whole face and neck to swell. She doesn't even look like herself. She couldn't speak properly and was wearing the clothes she travelled in.”

I just don't think they helped their case by saying they are a glamorous family.

ButchyRestingFace · 27/12/2017 08:46

That is awful to be so bitchy about her appearance. There are no pics of what she looks like now. Apparently her physical appearance is greatly changed and there are claims she has been attacked.

I’m certainly not bitchy about her appearance. She is (or was) very attractive in the photos I’ve seen, as is the sister.

But the “we’re a very glamourous family” comments are ill placed and won’t win much sympathy.

Roussette · 27/12/2017 08:48

I was joking on the nail comment... however labelling your whole family as 'glamorous' is pretty irritating and opens you up to comments like mine.

Piggywaspushed · 27/12/2017 08:49

No butchy it wasn't you that made the broken nail comment.

I doubt her family are getting much PR advice (yet). Max Clifford is dead/ was disgraced so not sure who now steps in for these families!

Rudgie47 · 27/12/2017 08:50

Some people on here are really awful and would be saying different things if it was a member of their own family.If your being a bitch just stop and think for a minute.

SandyDenny · 27/12/2017 08:50

It seems like a lot of the posters on this thread either take tramadol or know something about it.

I'm not a stupid or naive person but until this case I'd had no reason to have ever heard of it so I find it totally believable that she had no idea of whether it was legal to take large amounts into Egypt.

From what I've read she wasn't making any attempt to smuggle it (to me this implies some kind of concealment), it appears top have been in full view in her suitcase. I think she's been foolish in the extreme and fallen for an unsuitable man. Sadly for her it has ended very badly but on what I've read her crime seems to have come from stupidity.

Piggywaspushed · 27/12/2017 08:51

When that comment was made though they were being assured she would be let off so it was probably the worst they could imagine - that she would have to endure the humiliation of a reduction in her looks for a while.

ButchyRestingFace · 27/12/2017 08:52

"We are quite a glamorous family and she looked absolutely shocking,” she said. “Her hair has fallen out and she has a really bad ear infection which has caused her whole face and neck to swell. She doesn't even look like herself. She couldn't speak properly and was wearing the clothes she travelled in.”

The stuff about the clothes sounds pretty similar to other cases I’ve heard. I saw a case on Banged Up Abroad (I think) about two American girls jailed for drug offences in Peru - not the most recent pair.

When their parents visited them three months later, they were still wearing the clothes they were arrested in. The parents had to supply changes of clothes, san protection, all the usual stuff you’d expect a UK prison to supply. And they had to bathe and wash their own clothes in a bucket of water.

But it was the same for the native Peruvian women. Them’s the breaks when you commit an offence on foreign soil.

Piggywaspushed · 27/12/2017 08:53

The issue with me sandy is that I have heard of it just as a painkiller. And because I HAVE heard of it, I would have grouped it with the likes of naproxen , codeine etc. Those things are probably banned too : but I wouldn't myself know this.