Relic thieves?

Daily Mail, UK (Liz Todd)

It should have been a luxury break in the Caribbean sun. Having forked out £3,500 on a three-week holiday in St Lucia, retired policeman Anthony Griffin and his wife Pauline were naturally excited as their plane touched down.

However, as they passed through immigration, Mr Griffin was stopped and told there was an international warrant for his arrest over the theft of Egyptian artefacts.

Instead of booking in to a plush hotel the couple say they were separated and thrown in filthy, rat-infested police cells for two days.

'We were terrified,’ said Mr Griffin. ‘The treatment was diabolical. I was frightened to death and my wife was shaking with fear. We’ve been to Egypt twice but all we brought back was a cheap souvenir with Nefertiti’s head on it.’

The couple, from Gillingham, Kent, were the victims of an extraordinary identification blunder – but the error was not uncovered until they had been unceremoniously flown back to Britain.