Kerry Nwachukwu, 44, has described the terrifying time behind bars in a Dubai prison where she begged for a mattress to sleep on and lived in constant fear of getting attacked
A British mum is stuck in Dubai after spending a month in prison for failing to pay £19,000 of rent.
Kerry Nwachukwu, 44, has been caught in a legal and financial crisis in Dubai tied to two separate Rental Dispute Centre (RDC) cases in late 2024 and 2025. Despite having a British passport, the marketing consultant from London is still stuck in the UAE under two travel bans and needs to pay her debts to two landlords, avoid returning to prison – and eventually come home to the UK.
The founder of a marketing agency fell into £19,000 of rent arrears with two landlords after more than £10,000 in client contracts went unpaid by November last year, leaving her unable to cover her rent.
She has also been unable to renew her UAE business licence since January due to the legal proceedings, with her financial situation significantly worsened due to the war in the middle east. Kerry paid £3,000 to be released from prison under a 15-month repayment plan, only for the same judge to reverse the decision three weeks later and give her 15 days to repay instead.
Now that 15 day period is up, she claims the only thing stopping her from being arrested right now is “actively going outside”.
Kerry, who used to work as a marketing director at Sotheby’s, grew up in London and moved to Dubai to set up her own marketing agency in August 2022 with her 25-year-old son, John Nwachukwu.
Kerry, who shared her story via Talk to the Press, wants others to be aware of how “unpredictable” the law is in the UAE.
“It’s a criminal offense when I don’t pay rent, but when businesses don’t pay people, there is no legal consequence at all,” Kerry says. She says there is a “dark side” to the “glitz and glamour” of living in Dubai.
Kerry spent the earlier months of this year going back and forth to the rental court to set up instalments but says she “didn’t realise they had already issued a judgement or an arrest warrant to detain me”.
On April 22, she was walking through a mall on her way back from speaking to a rental clerk when she was stopped by a CID law enforcement officer and transferred to Bur Dubai police station.
She stayed in a cell in Bur Dubai for two weeks before being transferred to Al Awir Central Jail where she says there were “so many dangerous characters, that you can’t show emotion”.
Kerry said: “I was put inside with people who’ve murdered people, I was in one cell with people who were selling drugs. How is that even possible? Just for not paying your rent, you are thrown into a horrible, horrible jail.
“You have to be mentally strong and I feel like part of what I’ve learned about myself is how strong I am. I was the sort of person who would go into the shower and cry.”
She adds that she “nearly got into a fight a couple of times just to mark my territory. I became a person that I don’t want to be – it’s terrifying I could not sleep every night, I was feeling somebody’s going to jump at me.”
She says that women used to wee on the floor of the loo and for the first couple of days she didn’t have a mattress.
“I had to beg some girls to share. I was cold. They take away your shoes, so I was barefoot,” she added.
Kerry claims she barely had any cash but had to use what she had to buy a pair of slippers for £3. She was released on May 15 after her son requested nine times for her to be set free.
But three weeks later, she received a text with a new arrest warrant that had been changed from 15 months to 15 days. She says her lawyer has advised her not to “argue” with the judge.
“It makes the situation worse. Either I pay off another significant amount and the judge may give me more time but at the moment, as we stand, there’s nothing to do except avoid being arrested,” she said.
Her lawyer told her that if she coughs up another £4,000, it may convince the judge to cancel the current arrest warrant – but this is still not definite.
Kerry’s ultimate aim is to return home to the UK. She said: “If I had any means to literally pay the courts today, I’ll be on a plane straight out of here. I would not even look back. All my stuff is in storage, I’ll get a courier to bring it to the UK. I’ll literally just run out with my two suitcases and I won’t even look back.”
Her friends and family in the UK have set up a GoFundMe page to help cover day-to-day living costs and rent while repaying the two separate rental instalment plans – which are both tied to their own travel ban.
Before all of this, she started writing a book about building her business – but she now wants to base it about her detention story.
“People need to know the story of a businesswoman by herself, trying to build somewhere where actually the law can be very dangerous and people don’t forgive you,” she says.
You can donate to the GoFundMe by clicking here.
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