Brit drug suspect facing Bali firing squad previously jailed for armed robbery
A Brit who faces the death penalty if he is convicted of helping to smuggle cocaine into Bali had previously been jailed in the UK for armed robbery and drug-dealing.
Phineas Ambrose Float, 31, stands accused of drug-smuggling, along with fellow Brits Lisa Ellen Stocker, 29, and her boyfriend Jonathan Christopher Collyer, 28. The trio will be put on trial next week (June 10) in the Bali capital Denpasar, and if found guilty, could be sentenced to execution by firing squad.
Back in 2012, Float - then aged 19 - was sentenced to 12 months behind bars after being caught with mephedrone hidden in his sock. He had been attempting to enter the Sugar Mill nightclub in Hull city centre when bouncers stopped him at the door and conducted a random search.
Float had secreted 35 bags of the Class B drug, better known as M-Cat or Meow Meow, in his sock, which had a combined street value of £216. He also had £105 in cash on him. When he was arrested, he was heard telling cops: "It's only a bit of M-Cat."
Float, who was of no fixed address at the time, refused to give a saliva sample for police to test for drugs, and later pleaded guilty at Hull Crown Court to possession with intent to supply a Class B controlled drug and failing to provide a sample on suspicion of taking a Class A drug.
He was still on licence after being released from prison halfway through his sentence for armed robbery, and was told to go back to jail to serve the remainder, along with 12 months for the drugs charges.
Float, who was still on licence after being released halfway through a sentence for armed robbery, was caught on September 15.
Chief Inspector Dave Houchin of Humberside Police said at the time: "The sentencing of Float is a great result for Humberside Police and the people of Hull.
"It shows we take offences such as this very seriously and will do all we can to bring offenders to justice."
Float has been held in a Bali prison for the last four months, following his arrest in early February. His alleged accomplices, Stocker, from Gillingham in Kent, and Collyer were arrested together on Saturday, February 1. They had landed at Denpasar International Airport and were stopped at customs.
Their bags were searched and officials claimed to have found suspicious items in their suitcases disguised as food packages. Lab tests found that 10 sachets of Angel Delight powdered dessert mix in Collyer's luggage, combined with seven similar sachets in Stocker's suitcase, contained 993.56 grams of cocaine - worth an estimated 6 billion rupiah - approximately £272,500.
They had travelled from the UK, with a stopover in Doha, Qatar. Prosecutor I Made Dipa Umbara told the District Court in Denpasar at a pre-trial hearing that Float was arrested two days later at a controlled delivery set up by police, in which the other two suspects handed over the stash of Class A drug to him in the car park of a hotel in Denpasar.
Ponco Indriyo, the Deputy Director of the Bali Police Narcotics Unit, alleged it was the third time the same trio have smuggled drugs into the country. Their first two occasions were successful, he claimed.
Indonesian authorities crack down hard on suspected drug-smuggling, with at least 530 people - including 96 foreign nationals - currently on death row, mostly for drug-related crimes.
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