Gold Coast man, Marcus Lee, jailed in Dubai brings furry friend home despite the $20,000 price tag
JENNY ROGERS Gold Coast Bulletin April 02, 2014 12:01AM
Happy to be home. Little Dudley has been stuck in quarantine in Dubai since Marcus and Julie Lee were allowed to leave in January. Pic Jono Searle. Source: News Corp Australia
HE’S the $20,000 dog.
That’s what it cost Marcus and Julie Lee to get little Yorkshire terrier Dudley released from quarantine in Dubai so he could come home to Australia.
The Lees are flat broke, have maxed out their credit cards, are living in a small house at Burleigh lent by a friend and used a another mate’s car to drive from the Sydney quarantine facility to the Gold Coast.
But they say retrieving 13-year-old Dudley from Dubai was worth every cent.
“We were never going to leave Dudley behind, he is part of the family,” Mr Lee said.
“After five years and three months, the family is finally back together.
“This saga is finally over and we can start to rebuild our lives.”
Dudley while he was in quarantine in Dubai Source: Supplied
That “saga” saw Mr Lee thrown into a Dubai jail on Australia Day, 2009, after being accused of a crime he never committed.
After a hellish ordeal that included nine months in a Dubai jail and two months in solitary confinement, he was eventually thrice acquitted of allegations of fraud brought by Gold Coast property developer Sunland. The Lees were cleared to fly home to Australia in January, with Dudley due to follow days later.
Then they were told he needed a rabies all-clear before he could fly.
They began an expensive process, including sending his blood to a lab in London so he could gain the all-clear to leave Dubai.
A month ago, as they were preparing to book his flight home, the Lees received more bad news — Dudley had failed a final quarantine check and did not have enough tick antibodies in his system.
The Bulletin can now reveal that Julie Lee was forced to fly back to Dubai with a special course of antibiotics so the beloved pet could be released.
Despite massive media interest in Dudley’s fate, the pair kept that under wraps, fearful of upsetting sensitive Dubai authorities.
“Julie was terrified,” Mr Lee said.
“She had her passport taken off her in Dubai and until she was back on that plane for a second time, I was on a knife’s edge.
“We were most fearful of the randomness of the Dubai legal system. You never know what they might decide to do to you day to day.
“I was sitting here and Julie was over there — a woman alone in an Arab country and there was nothing I could do to help.”
Marcus and Julie Lee have been reunited with their dog Dudley who has been stuck in Quarantine in Dubai. Pic Jono Searle. Source: News Corp Australia
At last safely reunited on the Gold Coast, the Lees’ nightmare is finally over.
“Monday night was the first night in five years and three months that we were under the one roof with Dudley and are officially free,” an elated Mr Lee said.
And Dudley is one spoiled and happy dog.
“He’s been getting lots of cuddles and treats, he has his own dog bed on the lounge.
“We’re just so happy to have him home,” Mrs Lee said.
.. good luck to them they deserve heaps of happiness after their ordeal .. these two were in one on tv just now,
Dubai Trapped Episode 1 Part 1 of 2
to be continued next week .. am assuming they will also pop up on youtube, so only thing is to remember to snag them .. i'll try not to lose the note ..
Criminal gangs flourishing by providing fake EU (and other) passports and other documents to migrants fleeing war zones. I just saw a segment on tv. This 2014 Frontline deals with the business with terrorists
guess some same criminal gangs, and newer one, are using similar networks and expertise also cashing in with many zone refugees today.
Ok, here we go .. oops, i mean how they go ..
Six facts about fake passports
Ong Sor Fern The Straits Times Asia News Network March 12, 2014 1:00 am
The two passengers who managed to board the il-fated Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 with stolen passports have brought to light the loopholes in immigration checks as well as the booming trade in fake credentials. We look at some facts and figures behind stolen passports.
1. Number of missing or stolen passports
More than 40 million travel documents have been reported lost or stolen by 167 countries, according to Interpol's Stolen and Lost Travel Documents database.
2. Database for fakes
Interpol's database was set up in 2002 because Interpol and its member countries saw a link between terrorist activities and the use of lost or stolen travel documents. Convicted terrorist Ramzi Yousef, who helped build the bomb which killed six people in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, travelled to the United States on a stolen Iraqi passport. Milorad Ulemek, who assassinated Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Dindic and former Serbian President Ivan Stambolic in 2003 , crossed 27 borders with a missing passport before he was caught.
3. Few checks carried out
While all 190 member countries can access the database to countercheck travel documents, "only a handful of countries worldwide are taking care to make sure that persons possessing stolen documents are not boarding international flights", according to Interpol Secretary-General Ronald Noble. The United States is the biggest user, with 250 million annual checks. The United Kingdom follows with 120 million and the United Arab Emirates with 50 million. Despite this, passengers boarded planes more than a billion times last year without being checked against the database.
4. Thailand a hub
Thailand is a centre for fake passports because of its booming tourist industry, which attracts a large pool of European, American and Australian travellers. According to a 2012 report in the Bangkok expatriate magazine the Big Chilli, the Department of Special Investigation created the Transnational Crime Intelligence Operation Centre (TCIC) specifically to target gangs which forge and/or steal travel documents. The centre's head, Tinawut Slilapa, estimated that there were about 20 foreign gangs specialising in passport fraud. Reuters reported that according to Thailand's ministry of foreign affairs, more than 60,000 passports, both Thai and foreign, were reported missing or stolen in Thailand between January 2012 and June 2013.
5. How much?
Tinawut told the Big Chilli magazine that a passport in good condition, with three to five years left before its expiration date, can sell for US$1,500 to $3,000 (about Bt48,500-Bt97,000). There are extra charges for other changes, such as amending the photographs or adding visa stamps and stickers. Syndicates now have so many passports in their possession they can wait for a client who actually resembles the passport holder, and thus minimise changes to the document and ensure the fake passport holder has a better chance of clearing checks.
6. Crime syndicates
Terrorists are not the only ones relying on fake and/or stolen passports. Organised crime syndicates, drug smugglers and human traffickers also use fake papers to travel. In September 2013, Malaysian authorities arrested Seyed Ramin Miraziz Paknejad, 45, in Kuala Lumpur. He had fled Thailand where he was arrested in June 2012 for providing counterfeit travel documents to terrorists who carried out bombings in the country. According to a report in the New Straits Times, he was also suspected of providing more than 3,000 fake documents and responsible for trafficking thousands of people from different countries through the Middle East, Europe, Australia and Canada. http://www.nationmultimedia.com/opinion/Six-facts-about-fake-passports-30228944.html
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