A British great-grandfather with dementia is said to be a 'on death's door' in a prison cell in Dubai after being arrested for bounced cheques he says he didn't write.
William Norman Meyerhoff, 72, originally from Grimsby, Lincolnshire, was hauled into custody by Dubai officials during a transit stop on a flight to Australia in May and has since been subjected to horrendous conditions despite his ill health.
His family said he worked in Dubai over a decade ago and never had any issues there, but authorities told him there were 38 criminal cases against him relating to bad.
William, despite struggling with significant mental decline, has always maintained the cheques were falsely made in his name by owners of a company he used to work for.
Williams' family have said their great-grandfather is in very bad health and is essentially facing a death sentence unless he is released immediately.
William Norman Meyerhoff, 72, originally from Grimsby, Lincolnshire, was hauled into custody by Dubai officials during a transit stop on a flight bound for Australia in May and has since been subjected to beatings and horrendous conditions
William's two children, Matthew, 44 and Samera, 41, said they are devastated.
Matthew, who lives in Perth, Western Australia, said: 'He is largely deaf and cannot understand most of what is said to him, he finds it very hard to communicate.
'It seems that somehow, the Indian owners of Crystal Palace, put my dad down on the paperwork as a Director of the company but it was not his company and he wasn't responsible for running it and he had no idea of the intricacies of the operation and didn't even have access to the bank accounts.
'Now, he's been convicted in absentia and sentenced to essentially a life in prison.
'He has been used as a scapegoat by those who actually owned the company and were responsible for it.'
His family say William now been made aware the owners continued to distribute cheques in his name unbeknownst to him, even after he had left the company.
William was flying to be reunited his family in Australia in May after being stranded in Africa during Covid.
The Australian government had helped get him a flight but during a stopover in Dubai, he was seized by officials and swiftly taken away.
His family have said William was told he would spent over five years in prison, with an extra six months added on if he is unable to pay a AED 98,000 fine (£19,620).
William's two children, Matthew, 44 (pictured left) and Samera, 41, said they are devastated. Matthew, who lives in Perth, Western Australia, said of William: 'He is largely deaf and cannot understand most of what is said to him, he finds it very hard to communicate'
Matthew added: 'We have been unable to speak with dad. He's had no assistance from police, from the prison or the hospital.
'His treatment to date has been horrific. It is like they are trying to kill him. They can see he is extremely frail and ill and they are depriving him of his final journey with us.
'We would do anything to see him again and we beg Sheikh Mohammed to have some compassion for our father.
'He did not commit any crime and these cases are more than a decade old. Even if he tried to resolve them through
