24-year-old British football coach handed 25-year prison sentence after CBD found in car

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A British man is in jail in Dubai after authorities discovered CBD oil and a vape pen inside his automotive.

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Billy Hood, 24, is a soccer coach and former semi-pro participant who lately moved to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for work. Regardless of textual content messages from a good friend revealing that he’s the one who by chance left the CBD merchandise behind, Hood has been sentenced to 25 years in jail.

In accordance with the Daily Mail, Hood was handed the sentence after signing a confession, which was written in Arabic, after enduring days of abuse from jail officers.

Hood’s finest good friend, Alfie Cain, 24, instructed The Sun that Hood was overwhelmed and given solely small quantities of water and bread for a number of days. He was allegedly instructed the abuse would cease as soon as he signed the confession.

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“Billy mentioned they instructed him he may go house if he signed the paper, that’s why he gave in and signed that piece of paper in Arabic he had no thought what he signing, however he simply needed to make it cease,” Cain mentioned.

In an interview with Good Morning Britain, Hood’s mom Breda Guckion, 52, mentioned that the 25-year jail sentence “breaks me every single day.”

“I feel that for the primary 9 months, although we knew he had performed nothing fallacious, we nonetheless had that hope. However listening to that it was 25 years, it broke us, it utterly broke us,” Guckion mentioned.

She added the household has had “no help from the International Workplace.”

“As a mom, if anybody may help get Billy house, please do. That’s all I can ask from you,” she mentioned.

A couple of week forward of Hood’s arrest, the good friend who had visited had despatched him a textual content, stating that he had mistakenly left the CBD merchandise behind in his automotive.

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It’s believed that WhatsApp message might have prompted the search by police.

In accordance with the Day by day Mail, Hood’s mom believes the message was intercepted as a result of it contained the abbreviation for cannabidiol, or CBD.

“All the pieces we get from them is in Arabic, so we’re discovering it exhausting to translate all the things however, sure, that’s what they are saying,” she mentioned.

Hood reportedly volunteered to take a drug check after police confirmed up at his house and demanded to look his house and car. The check got here again destructive for medication.

Hashish, in all types, is against the law within the UAE. CBD, regardless of its non-intoxicating nature, is handled the identical as hashish and different medication, in response to CMS Legal Services.

The household has arrange a GoFundMe web page to lift cash to cowl Hood’s authorized charges and has at the moment reached greater than £14,000 ($23,600) towards its £20,000 ($33,850) purpose. The household can be interesting to the U.Ok. and UAE governments to intervene within the case, studies the BBC.

“I’ve all the time had a zero-tolerance on any medication or unlawful substances,” Hood mentioned in a press release to his legal professionals. “For me to be accused of selling and promoting medication in a rustic that has the identical beliefs and values as me may be very upsetting because it impacts my future.”

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