Lee Andrews, the former husband of Katie Price, has launched an audacious public appeal for £250,000 to fund his return to Britain, weeks after being released from a prison in Dubai.
Andrews, who describes himself as a millionaire businessman, was released from the UAE's Al Awir prison after serving four months. He has now set up a GoFundMe page under the banner of disaster and emergency, asking the public to help him return home to England immediately so he can, in his words, clear his name, rebuild his life and regain access to his funds.
The fundraising page's caption claims Andrews was falsely accused, detained illegally twice without trial, had assets seized and bank accounts frozen, and paid hundreds of thousands of pounds in legal bills and civil cases. It insists he is not guilty of any crimes and has been the victim of a smear campaign of fabricated stories and false allegations.
The appeal is the latest twist in a turbulent year for Andrews. In July he threatened to release a celebrity hit list of 58 stars he claimed had upset him, a list reported to include television presenter Susanna Reid, comedian Katherine Ryan, Kim Kardashian, singer Peter Andre and television personality Olivia Attwood. Attwood had previously ridiculed his AI-generated photographs online.
Price, 48, ended the couple's eight-month marriage last month. Since his release, Andrews has returned to Instagram, where he has posted videos to his 152,000 followers beneath a photograph of himself kissing a dolphin.
Andrews has consistently denied all allegations made against him. His fundraising page expresses his deep gratitude to supporters and maintains that he was denied bail and proper access to the court system while in Dubai, leaving him with no way to secure his own release.
The GoFundMe appeal has drawn a sceptical reaction in some quarters, given Andrews' controversial public profile and the extraordinary sums involved. Whether the public will fund the return of a man who has spent months in a foreign prison on disputed charges remains to be seen. For now, Andrews says he simply wants to come home, live peacefully and confront the accusations that have dogged him for years. The Sun has described Andrews as a controversial conman, a label he rejects. His July threat to publish the 58-name hit list named presenters, comedians and reality stars he accused of wronging him, though the list was never released in full. Since his release from Al Awir, he has used Instagram to speak directly to his followers, insisting the legal ordeal in Dubai left him financially crippled and cut off from the court system.