Disgraced British soldier turned Bitcoin robber Greg Simpson, 39, has been released from a prison in Bali after a 2022 offence and could return to the UK within days
A British robber who took £300,000 of Bitcoin in a terrifying knifepoint raid walks free early from his hell-hole Bali prison.
Disgraced former soldier Greg Simpson, 39, could be back in the UK within days after he was given a reprieve by Indonesian authorities. The veteran, an Army reservist who toured Afghanistan as a member of the London Regiment, was jailed for kidnap and robbery in 2022.
He tied up Italians Principe Nerini, 40, and wife Camilla Guadagnuolo, and held them at knifepoint at their Seminyak villa in November 2021. It comes after a kickboxing champion takes dead body to police station as he hands himself in for murder.
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Simpson was said to have been part of a four-strong gang that stole 5.8billion Indonesian Rupiahs in the raid, the equivalent of £300,000.
Authorities swooped and arrested Simpson and his alleged right-hand man Nicola Disanto, 34, but two accomplices were never traced. Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto freed Simpson as part of the country’s independence celebrations.
Exclusive pictures obtained by the Mirror show Simpson carrying his belongings as he was allowed to leave Bali’s notorious 320-inmate Kerobokan prison yesterday.
He looked fresh and healthy as he left Kerobokan – which is one of Indonesia’s most feared institutions, because it is ruled by violent domestic gangs.
He refused to speak to journalists as he was taken from the prison by immigration officials to a waiting car that drove him to spend the night in an immigration detention cell.
A source said: “Simpson’s crime was abhorrent but the Indonesian authorities are desperate to cut the huge prison population and foreign nationals are easy to release.”
Prison chief Hudi Ismono said that Simpson was among three Brits to receive remissions yesterday – where prison times are reduced for good behaviour. These are handed out every year the day after Indonesian Independence Day on August 17.
“During his time in prison, Simpson received remissions on Independence Day and Christmas,” Mr Ismono said. He has been well behaved and has not caused disturbances. He was released with only a bag containing his clothes.”
A number of British prisoners, including drug mule Lindsay Sandiford, 69, who has spent 12 years on death row, had hoped to be freed. The cocaine trafficker, of Cheltenham, Glos, thinks she can dodge the firing squad thanks to a change in the law.
Indonesia has recently freed other smugglers serving similar sentences as it relaxes its notoriously tough anti-drug laws. She has been held in Kerobokan since 2013 for bringing £1.6million of cocaine into the country.
The Mirror understands just three UK nationals were released or given reductions in their sentences. Thomas Parker, a 32-year-old electrician from Workington, Cumbria, was given a one month and 25-day remission on his 10-month sentence for failing to report a drug crime. Parker had unwittingly accepted a delivery of a kilo of MDMA from a taxi driver in January.
Drug convict Callum James Park, 35, of Hull, East Yorkshire, was handed eight months off his 2021 five-year sentence for possession 11.8 grams of methamphetamine and 5.5 grams of ecstasy.