THE young British man jailed here, earlier this week, for attempting drug trafficking had sneaked out of his Thorton Heath home, in England, three weeks ago without telling his mother. Former Stanley Technical School student Nishit Patel, 21, left the Attlee Close house, in secret on Christmas Day before flying 4,500 miles to Guyana.
The next time his mum, Amita, a part-time Tesco worker, heard from him was on January 3. He was phoning from a Guyanese jail after being caught boarding a plane with 29 pellets of cocaine worth more than £20,000 inside him.
On Monday last, he was sentenced to four years in jail after pleading guilty to the offence and also fined G$30,000, about £95.
Mrs. Patel, 46, said she last saw her son, who changed his name to Nikesh on being teased at school, after lunch on Christmas Day.
She said: “I came home and he had bags packed. I asked if he was leaving and he said no. I never know where he is going. He tells me nothing. I didn’t even know where Guyana was. I asked why did you do it and he said for the money.”
On December 31, last, Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) saw Patel acting suspiciously at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport and arrested him.
Dennis Mahase, a senior supervisor of CANU, said Patel, who has spent his whole life in Croydon, missed his earlier flight home and was picked up by officials while he waited.
Mahase said: “When the officials began questioning him, he complained about feeling unwell. After further questions, he admitted swallowing the pellets.”
Taken to Woodlands Hospital, also in Georgetown, Patel was x-rayed and the pellets, containing 352 grammes of the drug, with a street value of around £20,000, were found.
“He admitted, to us, that he had done this before, in November and got away with it,” said Mahase.
Mrs Patel said Nishit went off the rails after his grandparents and father died in quick succession four years ago.
She recalled: “He was such a good boy. Very caring. It changed him. A son listens to his father but to his mother, not so much. It was very hard.”
The family will now try to have him extradited to the United Kingdom (UK, said Mrs. Patel, who added: “I want to be able to see him. I know he has done wrong but he is my son. I have no idea what a jail out there is like.”
A British Foreign Office spokesman said: “We can confirm the arrest of a British national on December 31 in Guyana. We are providing consular assistance.”