Georgia Harrison was arrested last month after smashing up the bathroom while spending a night celebrating her partner’s new teeth
Georgia Harrison was arrested last month after smashing up the bathroom while spending a night celebrating her partner’s new teeth(Image: Georgia Harrison)
A mum who claims she had a travel ban wrongly imposed after trashing her hotel room in Turkey says she is still stuck in the foreign country without her daughter seven weeks later – and has even offered £10,000 to be able to go home.
Georgia Harrison, 32, from Whitworth in Rochdale, was arrested alongside her partner after trying to leave the Lexia Hotel in Antalya on May 7. The pair had spent the night celebrating her boyfriend getting his new teeth when she says she blacked out and smashed a screen in the bathroom.
After attempting to leave the hotel without declaring the damage, she claimed she was later arrested, thrown into a cell and forced to appear in court, where she was told to pay the sum of £15,000 for the damage and after ‘resisting arrest’ to have her travel ban removed.
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What followed has been weeks of turmoil for the Greater Manchester mum, with Georgia previously telling the M.E.N she initially offered a sum of £3,000 and instructed legal representatives to try and fight for the travel ban to be lifted so she could return home with her daughter, aged 12.
“I got drunk and I have somehow smashed the shower screen of the hotel room and damaged the room. [It was the] worst mistake of my life. Anyway it’s done, I can’t change it but wow am I paying for it,” she said last week.
“I know I did wrong and I regret being so stupid to have damaged the hotel, but I need to get home to my daughter.
The damage to the hotel bathroom screen(Image: Georgia Harrison)
“I’m sorry I was scared and I just tried to get away from it by trying to leave. Yes it was the wrong thing to do, but I was scared and not thinking straight. Maybe if I didn’t, I would be in this mess. I know only I am to blame and my actions are the reason I cannot see my daughter.”
Since the incident, Georgia claims she has appeared in court and unknowingly signed an agreement to pay back £15,000 in damages, was originally denied a solicitor, and has also been unable to access her vital medication, which she only had a five-day supply of for her original trip.
Despite attempts at mediation with legal representatives overseas, she says the travel ban has still not been lifted, with the fine looming over her, and she has since tried to flee the country via plane, a ferry and a day trip to Greece. She has also claimed the travel ban was wrongly put in place for ‘resisting arrest’, which she denied.
In an updated public post on Facebook, the mum said she has now offered £10,000 in damages to be able to finally fly home, but that she is still ‘no closer’ to a solution and needs ‘to get home to my child’.
“I want the ground to eat me sharing this,” she penned. “I’ve offered them 10 grand ’cause it’s all I’ve got, but still no closer!
Georgia has been stuck in Turkey for seven weeks(Image: Georgia Harrison)
“I just don’t understand how a prosecutor from a court can admit the ban has been place wrongly, as I didn’t resist arrest like they said I did. I went mad because I was refused a lawyer in the police station and rightly so.
“All I need [is] to get home to my child and to everybody who is asking why I didn’t pay the money in the first place, is because my lawyer kept telling me to ‘hold on in there Georgia we will get there in the end’.
“I don’t have it in me to stay and wait it out. I want to just pay the money and go, but up to now they won’t even except the 10 thousand even though the actual damage was valued at £1,000. It’s crazy.
“What else do you do [but] just sit and wait and get frustrated at the situation. Yeah I put myself in but wow I’m trying every option to get home and nothing at all is working still.”
A GoFundMe page has been set up to raise funds for Georgia to pay the fine and support her with costs while staying in Turkey. Donations can be made here.
The Foreign Office has been contacted for comment.