A recruitment consultant from Leeds has been locked up in a hell hole prison in Dubai for three months on drugs charges, MailOnline can reveal.
Isabella Daggett, 21, was arrested just weeks after relocating from Yorkshire to the puritanical desert city state after landing a new job.
But her desperate family insist she was seized by cops simply for being ‘in the wrong place at the wrong time’ and has never used narcotics.
Ms Daggett, who also jointly ran a small family-owned modelling agency, had been offered the chance to work in Dubai in early spring but was caught up in a drugs raid soon after arrival.
Her grandmother Heather Smith said: ‘Bella has been locked up because she was in the wrong company. Wrong place, wrong time. Wrong boyfriend.
‘She has been in prison since March but we have finally got a court date for next month.
‘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 faces have not been made public.
Isabella Daggett (pictured), 21, was arrested just weeks after relocating from Yorkshire to the puritanical desert city state after landing a new job
The recruitment consultant from Leeds has been locked up in a hell hole prison in Dubai for three months on drugs charges, MailOnline can reveal
Her desperate family insist she was seized by cops simply for being ‘in the wrong place at the wrong time’ and has never used narcotics
Ms Daggett, who also jointly ran a small family-owned modelling agency, had been offered the chance to work in Dubai (pictured) in early spring but was caught up in a drugs raid soon after arrival
Mrs Smith continued: ‘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.
‘I don’t know the whole thing. I’m not sure what charges she has been arrested for, only possession of something – probably drugs, but I don’t know for certain.
‘But she is innocent because they have done all the tests and there was nothing in her system.’
Mrs Smith said her granddaughter had been working for a businessman doing internet recruiting for construction sites in the UK, before her boss offered her the chance to work in Dubai in a similar role.
Mrs Smith said the family had given the young women a stern warning about the pitfalls of life behind Dubai’s glamorous façade
‘The bloke she was working for said for her to come to Dubai, you’ll love it there, the lifestyle is wonderful…blah, blah, blah,’ said Mrs Smith. ‘Now she is locked up.
‘And 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.’
Mrs Smith said the family had given the young women a stern warning about the pitfalls of life behind Dubai’s glamorous façade.
‘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.’
Isabella and her mother, Lucinda Smith, 44, are co-directors of Leeds-based firm the Global Model Agency Ltd and Lucinda posted a GoFundMe page for her daughter this week, under the headline ‘Help Get Bella Home’ with a £5,500 target.
Her grandmother Heather Smith said: ‘Bella has been locked up because she was in the wrong company. Wrong place, wrong time. Wrong boyfriend’
Mrs Smith said her granddaughter had been working for a businessman doing internet recruiting for construction sites in the UK, before her boss offered her the chance to work in Dubai in a similar role
Her grandmother said: ‘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 wrote: ‘To our dear friends and family. I am reaching out to you in a time of great need.
‘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.’
Lucinda Smith declined to comment.
