A 79-YEAR-OLD Welshman behind bars in Chile has had a plea for house arrest turned down.
William ‘Billy Boy’ Eastment was arrested on May 26 after he was allegedly caught trying to enter Chile with £200,000 of methamphetamines in his suitcase.
The pensioner is suspected of being an international drug smuggler, but claims that he was tricked into carrying the suitcase by a mysterious stranger.
Eastment had begged to swap prison in Santiago for house arrest because of a string of health woes which have included a double bout of pneumonia.
In hard-hitting court submissions, the 79-year-old’s lawyers claimed staying in prison was a “real and imminent” risk to Eastment’s life.
The OAP’s last bid to change his custody arrangements, backed by UK-based relatives, was initially approved on October 17, before being overturned.
The Welshman will stay behind bars despite medical reports showing life-threatening health problems and claims he had been threatened in jail.
Eastment, a bowls and fishing enthusiast, alleged that a mystery woman called Carolina approached him during a layover in Mexico.
He said he had been receiving emails he thought were from International Monetary Fund bigwigs.
Eastment’s lawyer said: “In these emails, a person named Carolina, whose surname he does not remember, informed him that one of his relatives in New Zealand had died and that in order to access that person’s inheritance, he had to travel to Auckland, New Zealand, to sign certain documents at a public notary’s office.”
“My client, who did indeed have relatives in that country and who does not live with anyone who could have warned him of the possible fraudulent nature of these emails, fell for the scam and set off on the journey to Auckland, a destination that is recorded in the police report drawn up after his arrest.”
After travelling all the way from his home in Milborne Port, Somerset to Mexico City, Eastman says he was approached by a mysterious woman, who told him that he had won the lottery.
His lawyer said: “This trip would have included a stopover in Mexico City where this woman calling herself Carolina apparently approached his hotel and handed him the documentation he had to present in New Zealand, as well as a suitcase supposedly containing ‘gifts’ with a locked padlock on it which she did not give him the key for.”
The pensioner claimed that “Carolina” had promised him £3.7 million to deliver the suitcase.
The mysterious woman had even given him a fake certificate alluding to the prize, police said.
Sergio Paredes, head of the Chilean PDI police force’s Anti-Narcotics Division at the airport, said after Eastment’s arrest: “He alleged he had been deceived.”
He added: “We understand he was given the suitcase by someone he hadn’t met before who contacted him at the airport in Mexico before he boarded his flight and he claimed he had been promised a prize of £3.7 million for delivering the suitcase to its final destination.”
The pensioner remains behind bars at tough Santiago 1 Penitentiary as investigators continue to build their case against him and try to identify the drug lords he was allegedly working for.
He now faces spending Christmas in jail.
In more bad news for Eastment, prosecutors want to extend the 120-day limit they were initially given to probe him while he is held in custody before being charged.
A new court hearing to approve the extension is understood to have taken place in the last few days with a decision pending.
Eastment’s sister Jennifer, 78, described him as “gullible” after learning about his arrest.
She told the Daily Mirror: “If someone gave him a story like that about needing something delivered and he would get paid for it, he wouldn’t think about drugs or anything like that.
“You would not believe that someone so intelligent and top of the class growing up could be so stupid and have so little common sense.”
She revealed that her brother has been scammed before.
The 78-year-old said her brother was scammed about four years ago by a Nigerian fraudster who he gave £20,000.
She said: “This woman called Jennifer, the same name as me, had messaged to say she was in trouble after being arrested in Istanbul and needed money for a lawyer.
“I don’t know whether he thought it was me. He could have checked, but instead, he sold his car, gathered all the money he could, and sent it to her. Funnily enough, he never heard from her again.”
