A British recruitment consultant held in Dubai on alleged drugs charges has flown home to Britain after a year-long nightmare.
Isabella Daggett, 22, was locked up in a hell-hole prison in the puritanical Gulf state last March accused of possessing drugs.
The young woman was arrested just weeks after relocating from Leeds, West Yorkshire, after landing a new job as a recruitment consultant.
Her desperate family insisted she was detained simply for being ‘in the wrong place at the wrong time’ and being in the ‘wrong company’.
The Daily Mail can reveal that Ms Daggett flew back to the UK last Friday – almost a year to the day of her incarceration.
It is understood that charges against her were eventually dropped in January, with Ms Daggett instead ordered to pay a fine of around £3,000 for overstaying her visa.
A family friend said of the emotional homecoming: ‘She’s only just been released – it’s been a whole year of hell.
‘Everyone thought she would be straight on a plane home as soon as the charges were dropped in January, because that should have been the end of it.
Isabella Daggett, 22, a British recruitment consultant, has finally flown back to the UK after being held in Dubai on alleged drug charges
The young woman was arrested just weeks after relocating from Leeds, West Yorkshire, after landing a new job as a recruitment consultant
‘But then came this £3,000 visa overstay fine, which absolutely stunk.
‘It felt like one last kick in the teeth after everything she’d already been through.
‘There’s just huge relief now. They’ve got her back. That’s all they wanted.’
Ms Daggett, a self-employed beautician who jointly ran a family-owned modelling agency, moved to Dubai after being offered the chance of a well-paid recruitment job in the tax-free haven.
However, she was arrested in a drugs raid soon after her arrival and placed in one of the state’s notorious detention centres, facing the prospect of years in jail if convicted.
Drug offences in Dubai are treated with extreme severity, and even possession of tiny amounts for personal use can lead to sentences of up to four years.
It is understood that Ms Daggett was arrested alongside a man she had been staying with at the time.
Her family have always insisted she was innocent, with grandmother Heather Smith previously saying: ‘Bella has been locked up because she was in the wrong company.
‘Wrong place, wrong time. Wrong boyfriend.
‘She was arrested with a lad that was not her boyfriend, who she was staying with because things had fallen through with another house.’
Exactly what charges Ms Daggett had faced were not made public by UAE authorities and her family were long left in the dark as to precisely what she was alleged to have done.
It is also unclear whether the timing of her release is related to the war raging in the Middle East.
Speaking in May last year, Mrs Smith said: ‘All I know is that she rang me a week before all this happened and said that she wasn’t happy and she knew something wasn’t right.
‘She was going to move out and come home to Leeds. And then this happened.
‘But she is innocent because they have done all the tests and there was nothing in her system.’
Ms Daggett was placed in one of the Dubai state’s most notorious detention centres, facing the prospect of years in jail if convicted. Her family said she was in the wrong place, at the wrong time
At the height of the family’s panic last year, relatives described in grim detail the conditions they said Ms Daggett was facing in prison.
Ms Smith added: ‘Women get treated far worse than male prisoners, who get to go outside, they get sports, a PlayStation and a television – Bella has nothing.
‘She hasn’t had a shower for a month, she hasn’t had a change of clothes for three months. She has had nothing.
‘She can speak to me and her mum every day though, which is good. But we have been in bits.’
Since returning to Britain, Ms Daggett has been making up for lost time with her loved ones.
She posted pictures on Instagram showing her smiling beside her mother during a day out in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, including a boating trip and picnic.
Meanwhile, she wrote on TikTok: ‘Life is short. Love who loves you. Be at peace.’
In another recent post, she talks about looking forward to spending a ‘hot gal summer’ in Ibiza.
Ms Daggett, who has always maintained her innocence, is understood to remain fearful of speaking out about her ordeal despite being back home.
The United Arab Emirates’ strict laws criminalising criticism of the state means she still remains deeply wary about saying anything that could place her at risk.
Mrs Smith said the family had given the young women a stern warning about the pitfalls of life behind Dubai’s glamorous facade.
Speaking previously, she said: ‘We told Bella before she went to Dubai “you know the rules in Dubai, play by the rules, don’t flaunt this, don’t do that”.
‘But there was a whole sequence of events that led up to her, inadvertently, being in this bloke’s house, where she didn’t want to be. She didn’t really like him that much.
‘He may be guilty of something, but she isn’t.’
Ms Daggett’s mother, Lucinda Smith, 45, raised almost £1,500 through a GoFundMe page to ‘help Bella get home’.
Ms Daggett has been back in the UK a week and has been trying to put her Dubai nightmare behind her with some paddleboarding in Knaresborough and catching up with family
She wrote: ‘My daughter Isabella has been wrongfully detained in Dubai, and we are doing everything we can to prove her innocence and bring her back home.
‘We have proof she was not involved in these charges and are determined to fight for her freedom. The hideous conditions she is living in is enough to break any mother’s heart.
‘The legal and travel expenses are overwhelming, and we need your support. Any contribution, no matter how small, will help us cover the costs of legal fees, travel, and other necessary expenses.’
