Man who survived over a year in Thai prison issues visa warning to tourists wanting to visit the country

A British man who spent more than a year in the horrific conditions of Thai prisons after making a visa mistake has warned others how to avoid a similar fate.

Oliver Hardy travelled to Thailand in 2023, booking a one-way ticket to learn Muay Thai there.

He explains to LADbible for its Minutes With how he arrived in Thailand with a 45-day visa: "I knew I had time to sort out my visa situation and I was planning to go and get the Muay Thai education visa."

Hardy had been quoted a price of 50,000 baht ($1,527) by a visa company he'd used before, but was on the lookout for a cheaper option. He then met a man who said he could ‘sort the visa out for 40,000 baht’ which ‘worked out about £250 ($341) cheaper’.

Hardy recalled: “So I went with that option. Of course, as you would do as a young traveller, he took my passport away from me. He gave me various documents back and my passport back.

"I thought that my visa was done, and I was now set to be in Thailand for the next year with no problems."

Oliver Hardy has opened up about his experience getting detained and sentenced to over a year in a Thai prison (LADbible Stories)

The beginning of the visa problems

But he eventually realised that there was a serious issue with his visa situation after meeting other British travellers.

"They basically just said to me that whatever has been done is clearly fake," he says. "It was way too late for me to go and change something as I was already now in overstay."

Hardy visited a visa agency and spoke to someone who said they could fix it. They warned that it would cost a lot of money, but said ‘it can easily be done’, explaining that he would be ‘taken out of the country and brought back with a fresh visa’.

“A few alarm bells did ring off in my head, I won’t lie,” he says of the moment.

When he was met with uniformed immigration officers, one of them informed him that he was ‘good to go’ and Hardy felt a huge feeling of relief.

He travelled to Bali in Indonesia, and when his sister later told him she was planning a trip to Asia, including Thailand, Hardy flew back to Bangkok - but instead of flying into Suvarnabhumi, the airport he left from, he travelled to a different airport called Don Mueang.

Hardy flew into Don Mueang airport in Bangkok, which is where he was detained (Getty Stock Image)

'Next thing you know, they're like, you're going into prison'

Hardy went through Thai immigration and the officer noticed two stamps in his passport showing that he had supposedly left Thailand and later returned to England.

He says he had never taken those flights, and therefore didn't know why those stamps were in his passport.

Because of those stamps, Thailand's immigration system apparently showed a travel history that didn't match his actual movements.

He was consequently detained and questioned for about eight hours, with officers accusing him of being an international criminal, using a false identity, and trying to evade immigration detection.

“Next thing you know, they're like, you're going into prison," he recalls.

Oliver Hardy's warning over visas to visit Thailand

Now sharing a warning for other travellers wanting to visit the country, Hardy says: “I wish everybody… just if they've got a visa problem, go to the actual immigration themselves.

"I know it probably won't be the best thing, because they will probably just put you on a flight back home and ban you from the country if you are in overstay, which I have seen many times before, but it's a lot better than trying to get these stamps and trying to sort it out with the airport, like I've done.”

Regarding the immigration entry/exit stamps in his passport, he warned: “So just everybody learn from what's happened with me and don't go down the same steps, what I have, because you will most likely end up in prison."

Muay Thai training attracts visitors from around the world, including Hardy himself (Getty Stock Image)

His experience in Thailand's 'horrific' prisons

Hardy was given a sentence of one year and four months, and he served his time in two different prisons throughout his sentence.

“The living conditions for the first two months were the most horrific for me,” he says, before explaining some of the most shocking and disturbing scenes he witnessed.

"They basically put them on the heated concrete floor outside for all of the other people who were trapped in the rooms to see," he explains. "And they were just pouring water over them.

"At one point, they even put, like, a towel over their face and basically waterboarded them in front of everybody and anybody in the intro wing."

Watch the full Minutes With episode here:

'People are just pooing on top of each other's poo'

He remembers the buildings, which are all made of concrete, not having windows.

"I technically slept outside for a year and a half, even when it rains. As I said, there's no windows, so it depends on what room you're in and where the wind's going and how much rain it is."

There were 'around 120 foreigners in one room' which made for very uncomfortable conditions.

He recalls: "You've got somebody's feet in your face and the food is inedible. People are just pooing on top of each other's poo. Everybody can wash once every three days.

"That is inhumane, what happens in there."