France News

France seeks UK grandmother Deborah Dark for drugs crime

Monday, 27 July 2009

France seeks UK grandmother Deborah Dark for drugs crime

France is after Deborah Dark, a UK grandmother, who was convicted of a drugs crime in her absence 20 years ago.

45-year-old Dark, from London, had been acquitted of a drugs charge back in 1989; however, she was also later found guilty and sentenced to six years on appeal but not informed of this.

France issued a European Arrest Warrant for her back in 2005; however, subsequent extradition attempts have failed in both Britain and Spain.

Ms Dark had been originally arrested in France in 1989 in a car that was found to be carrying several kilos of cannabis.

The French court that tried the case accepted her defence that she been set up by a boyfriend and acquitted her of the crime.

However, the prosecution appealed without letting her know after she had gone back to the UK and she was found guilty and sentence was passed in 1990.

The French warrant for Ms Dark’s arrest is so that she can be returned to France to serve her imprisonment. She cannot leave the UK now or she will be arrested.

Comment on this article