/ 5 October 1999

AMERICAN TOURS NEWCASTLE JAIL

AN American tourist claims he was thrown into a filthy holding cell full of dagga smokers at the Newcastle Magistrate’s Court last week because of a misunderstanding over a bill. Dean Michaels (40) said on Friday: “Nearly all of them were smoking dagga, or rolling something in the corner. I could not believe the smell.” Michaels returned to Newcastle in northern KwaZulu-Natal last Tuesday after a week touring Anglo-Boer war battlefields, to discover a warrant for his arrest. He said he was wanted for forgetting to pay a R880 bed and breakfast bill.