A man held in squalid conditions in a Thai prison has spoken of his four years of hell.

Yellow ribbons lined the streets of Kenley to welcome home 23-year-old Sonny Veerasawmy, on Tuesday February 28, found guilty of committing ATM fraud alongside his father Mark in February 2008.

Sonny, who maintains his innocence, experienced over-crowded cells, with 180 to a room and just two toilets and watched fellow inmates waste away suffering from diseases such as AIDS and Tuberculosis.

He said: "Words can’t describe it. It was really bad. You’re sleeping on the floor and you’ll be lucky even to get space there, the food was terrible and the conditions mean people go mental.

"I knew people who were in there only three weeks and wanted to kill themselves."

Arrested with his father while using a cash machine in Phuket City in the south of the country during a family holiday, Sonny, of Bourne Close Lane, was accused of trying to use a card skimmer which copies debit and credit card details.

He said: "I couldn’t understand it, they had no evidence, they said there was a video of us installing it but it went missing. If we had the money to get a decent lawyer I would have got off."

Before standing trial though Sonny was forced to spend 20 months in Phuket Provincial Jail without trial.

His case was highlighted in a documentary, Big Trouble in Thailand, aired on cable channel Bravo.

He said: "You don’t know what’s going on, the whole system is corrupt. By the time I was sentenced I had already done two years and it wasn’t worth trying to appeal. By the time that went through I’ probably have been there longer fighting it.

"The lawyers pretend they are your friend, say they can get you off, but then do nothing, they are only interested in the money."

Separated from his father, who still has three years remaining on his sentence, Sonny kept himself sane by writing hundreds of letters to friends, family, and former inmates.

He said: "I think they must have thought I was going made, I’d just sit and write and write. Sometimes I’d take two days drawing a picture to go with the letter. It was the only way I could keep in contact."

Even on his release Sonny’s trial was not over.

Sent to immigration to await a flight home he was confronted with prison-like conditions.

He said: "It was worse than prison. We were only allowed out two times a week and then only for a few hours and the food was dreadful. There are guys there, refugees who have been there for years, it is unbelievable."

He was greeted with a surprise party at Whyteleafe Football Club by friends on Saturday March 3.

He said: "I have to say a huge thank you to all my friends, it is still sinking in I’m home, weird, but I am so grateful to my friends who haven’t disappeared but stuck by me."