A MOTHER forced to pay £5,500 to release her sons from a Greek prison says she has been scammed.

Beverley Smith handed over the cash after her sons were jailed on "bogus" robbery charges just hours after arriving in the country.

Liam and Sean Smith were travelling to their hotel in Kavos on August 15 when their coach stopped at a supermarket.

Liam, 19, went in to the shop to buy cigarettes while Sean, 18, waited outside.

But when Liam returned to the shop to buy a can of beer, the shopkeeper claimed to have been robbed.

A tourist who understood some Greek commented the shopkeeper was claiming he had been robbed by "a black man".

Sean, who went to The Priory School, Tintagel Road, Orpington, and Liam, who was home-schooled, continued on to the hotel, but were later asked to go a police station and give statements.

On arrival, they saw the shopkeeper who told the police Liam had stolen 100 euros from him.

Liam was immediately locked up.

On the same afternoon the shopkeeper then claimed Sean had also taken part - adding the teenagers had been armed with knives.

Sean was also jailed and the brothers were told they were facing armed robbery charges.

The brothers spent four nights in a cell in Asfalia prison.

Liam, a scaffolder, said: "It was the dirtiest place I have ever been.

"There was blood and faeces up the walls and cockroaches running everywhere.

"I thought I was looking at 25 years for buying some cigarettes.

"All we ever heard from the lawyer was How much bail can you raise?' "The British Consulate was useless - they told me to calm down and bide my time.

"I thought that was it. I have a 16-month-old daughter and thought I would never see her again."

Mother-of-four Beverley-Anne Smith, of Kedleston Drive, Orpington, said: "It was ludicrous. How could it go from him claiming to have been robbed by one black man to two white boys?"

Ms Smith, 47, contacted the British Consulate in Corfu, but says it told her it was a police matter and it could not help.

She arrived in Greece the following day and met with a lawyer.

Ms Smith said: "He told me we were looking at £20,000 bail for each of my boys.

"I told him I didn't have that sort of money so he kept asking me how much bail I could raise.

"I said I could probably get around £3,000 then he suddenly said I could pay £1,500 per boy."

Ms Smith was also told she had to pay £1,000 for the case to be heard at all.

Despite three witnesses who would testify Liam had not committed any crime and Sean had not entered the shop, the judge took evidence from only the bus driver.

After the hearing, Ms Smith says she was told to pay £3,000 in cash to bail both her sons and £1,500 to the lawyer.

She said: "After paying bail the lawyer just told me to take the boys home.

"It was very odd the bail amounts suddenly changed but there was no guarantee my boys were even coming back so I paid it and we fled.

"I feel disgusted and horrified. We were scammed. The day they were released I became very ill. I had had to be strong for them but afterwards, I just fell apart.

"I felt absolutely helpless, there was no-one we could rely on. We had to put our trust in other tourists and ask them to give up their holiday and come to court as witnesses.

"Any youngsters who go out there have to understand this could happen to them. It all boiled down to money, which is all anyone wanted to talk about."

Liam said: "I will always be angry about it. I only went on holiday with my brother and I ended up in prison. I will never go back."

Sean said: "We were charged with armed robbery but we were the ones who were robbed. I will never forgive them for what they did."

A spokesman for the Foreign Office confirmed it is aware of the case but declined to discuss it in detail, citing "consular confidentiality reasons".

The Greek Embassy was unavailable for comment.