A British teenager arrested for drug smuggling in a former Soviet republic is the great-granddaughter of a former Labour MP accused of fiddling his parliamentary expenses. Bella May Culley was arrested at Tbilisi airport in Georgia on suspicion of trying to smuggle 30 pounds of marijuana into the country.
The 18-year-old faces a long jail term in a brutal Georgian prison if found guilty of the charges. She appeared before a judge earlier this week in a pre-trial hearing, where she claimed she was pregnant before exercising her right to remain silent. The nursing student from Teesside is the great-granddaughter of ex-Stockton North Labour MP Frank Cook who died in 2012, MailOnline reports.
Culley is reported to regularly post pictures with her “special lady” grandmother – who is the late MP’s daughter.
In one post wishing her happy birthday, she wrote she loved her “unconditionally” before calling her “one of the most important ladies in my life”.
Cook represented Stockton North for 27 years and became embroiled in the 2009 expenses row that rocked Westminster.
Investigations showed he had claimed £153,902, which included a £5 donation made by an aide representing him at a memorial service.
The former Labour MP strenuously denied he had tried to fiddle his expenses, saying the donation was an IOU from the member of staff who went to the service on his behalf – and that he added it to his expenses by mistake.
“It was a genuine mistake and I stress again: I would never deliberately make a claim of this kind,” he said.
He went on to lose a libel case against The Sunday Telegraph following the revelations.
Cook stood as an independent candidate in his constituency at the 2010 general election after being deselected by Labour but failed to retain the seat.
He died in 2012 at the age of 76 – a year after being diagnosed with lung cancer.
His great-granddaughter went travelling with a friend but decided to take a spontaneous trip without her to Thailand on May 3.
On Saturday, she lost contact with her parents, sparking fears she had been abducted, but the next thing they knew, she was in handcuffs in Tbilisi facing serious charges.
Georgian authorities say she tried to stash 34 bags of cannabis in her luggage which was detected at the capital’s airport.