Suneet Jeerh, Grant Cameron and Karl Williams are not the first Redbridge residents to see their Dubai holiday dream take a nightmarish turn.

A previous Dubai three were also thrown in prison on suspicion of drugs charges in 2003, it has emerged.

An Ilford man, who did not want to be identified, told the Recorder he was in the United Arab Emirates for only a day between flights back home to the UK when he was thrown in jail.

One of his friends had smoked hashish and police arrested all three after what they suspect was a tip-off from a paid informer.

Abdul – not his real name – spent 10 days in Port Rashid jail, where Mr Cameron and Mr Williams have been kept for nine months.

He said: “They found traces of cannabis in my urine because of passive smoking.

“But I was let out without charges because the concentration in my system was so low.

“I was very, very lucky.”

Abdul’s friend served three months after admitting possessing hashish, which he had purchased in Pakistan and taken on the flight through Dubai unaware of the country’s draconian drugs laws.

He said they met another man from Ilford, who was arrested after police found traces of drugs on his credit card.

Abdul said: “A lot of people get done over there if drugs are on your credit card or on your clothes.

“They get four years for trace amounts, even for having poppy seeds.

“There were a lot of people inside that prison who were absolutely innocent.”

Abdul said a woman was thrown in the jail with her three rapists, who were released when one agreed to marry her, and an Indian man was arrested for indecency after doing press-ups in a park.

Although he and his friends were not beaten or tortured, he said police would beat other prisoners and make them watch, threatening they would be next.

He said: “We were lucky we had British passports.

“They kept asking me if I was Pakistani or Indian but I said I was British.

“They really didn’t like that because of our skin colour.

“They just wanted us to say we were from another country so they could beat us up.”

Abdul said tourists from Canada, France and America were crammed together in “sewer” conditions.

He was kept in the country for two months after release because his passport had been seized.

Abdul is too afraid to ever go back.

He said: “I feel sorry for the guys in prison now.

“The authorities in Dubai aren’t good people and there’s nothing you can do.”