Briton faces 6 years in Turkish jail over coins he found while snorkelling
A BRITISH ambulance driver is languishing in a Turkish jail and could face a lengthy prison sentence after packing coins he found while scuba diving into his hand luggage.
Toby Robyns, 52, is locked in a cell hundreds of miles from his family as he waits to find out if he could serve up to six years behind bars or face a hefty fine for what has been called a ‘foolish mistake’.
The father of five was about to board a flight back to the UK when security staff searched his bags and pulled out a plastic bag of 13 coins – claiming that he had attempted to take ‘ historical artefacts’ out of the country.
He now faces an agonising wait for the case to be heard in a Turkish court with a spell of up to six weeks behind bars to find out if he will be charged.
He is being held on suspicion of finding Turkish artefacts without notifying authorities.
If the authorities prove he took the coins ‘with intent’ Mr Robyns could face six years in jail. If the removal of the coins is deemed accidental, he will be handed a hefty fine.
A friend said his family, from Southwick, West Sussex, are ‘distraught’ after Mr Robyns picked up the 13 coins as part of ‘harmless’ holiday fun during a fortnightlong break to Turgutreis in the south of the country.
The keen scuba diver was stopped by security staff last Friday at Bodrum airport and was arrested in front of his panicked family. His wife Heidi, 43, a doctor’s receptionist, and their sons aged nine and seven later flew home.
Yesterday their local MP was working with the Foreign Office and the family to get to the bottom of what had happened.
Conservative Tim Loughton, MP for East Worthing and Shoreham, said: ‘This was an innocent albeit foolish mistake and we now need to ensure Mr Robyns is treated fairly and properly.’
Friend James Stoneham, 47, told The Sun: ‘They are accusing him of taking Turkish artefacts which he was obviously unaware of. It was a huge shock for everybody.
‘He found a number of coins among the rocks and sand. When he went to get his flight home they dragged him off and searched his hand luggage.’
Mr Robyns is being held in Milas prison, a white-bricked compound which holds some 70 inmates and is around an hour from Bodrum by car. A relative had earlier told of how she believed authorities were making a ‘mountain out of a molehill’, adding: ‘ He’s definitely not a smuggler and that’s what I think they are trying to say.
‘It was stupid of him. I thought he would get a slap on his wrists, they would confiscate the coins and send him on his way.’
Due to a lengthy judicial break in the country it could be up to six weeks before Mr Robyns finds out his fate.
The spot where Mr Robyns found the coins is just a few miles from the scene of many ancient shipwrecks said to lie at the bottom of the ocean.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: ‘We are assisting a British man following his arrest in Bodrum, and remain in contact with his family and the Turkish authorities.’
Prisons in Turkey are often overcrowded with many inmates sometimes crammed into the same cell.
‘An innocent mistake’