Exclusive: Model, 22, who spent three months in prison after she was wrongly accused of drug running is awarded £20,000 compensation

• Greta Gila was arrested by cops when they burst into her hotel at Rome airport
• She had been on a stopover in the capital before heading onwards to Tokyo
• Greta was due to meet a costume designer who was going to travel with her

A model who spent almost three months in jail wrongly accused of drug running has been awarded £20,000 compensation.

Greta Gila, 22, was arrested by cops when they burst into her hotel at Rome airport after she had flown in from London for the dream of a lifetime assignment which quickly became a nightmare.

She had been on a stopover in the Italian capital before heading onwards to Tokyo and was due to meet a costume designer who was going to travel with her.

But unknown to Greta the woman had been intercepted by police in Brazil carrying 11 kilos of cocaine and officers had allowed her to continue as part of a ‘controlled delivery’ to see where the drugs ended up.

A model who spent almost three months in jail wrongly accused of drug running has been awarded £20,000 compensation

Greta Gila (pictured), 22, was arrested by cops when they burst into her hotel at Rome airport after she had flown in from London for the dream of a lifetime assignment which quickly became a nightmare

Hungarian born Greta – a former Miss Universe entrant – had been promised £1,500 for the assignment by the London agency who hired her for the shoot in March 2019.

As she sat in her hotel room chatting to her parents on the telephone armed cops burst in and arrested her on suspicion of being part of an international drugs courier network.

She was held on remand for 74 days before eventually being released but had to spend a further six months in Italy signing on every day at a police station while the case was investigated.

Lawyer Massimiliano Scaringella eventually managed to secure her freedom after she appeared in court and had the case against her thrown out by a judge for lack of evidence.

They took the case to Rome’s Supreme Court where they initially tried to sue the Italian Government for £85,000 claiming her life had been ruined by the experience.

But they ruled she should be given £18,000 instead and she and Massimiliano have vowed to carry on fighting for adequate compensation.

Hungarian born Greta – a former Miss Universe entrant – had been promised £1,500 for the assignment by the London agency who hired her for the shoot in March 2019

Greta told MailOnline: ‘I’m obviously happy with the result and the victory but the compensation is nowhere near enough for what I had to go through.

‘Of course morally I am also happy because the Court accepted that I did nothing wrong and I should not have spent 74 days in jail for something I didn’t do.

‘My life was on hold for almost a year because even after being released after almost three months in prison I had to spend another six months in Italy under house arrest while the case was investigated.

‘My career suffered and I still haven’t been able to get back to work properly and instead I am now a painter but modelling was always my first love and I would like to return to it.

‘The whole experience was a nightmare for me and as far as I am concerned justice has not yet been fully achieved.’

As she sat in her hotel room chatting to her parents on the telephone armed cops burst in and arrested her on suspicion of being part of an international drugs courier network

She added: ‘I can still remember vividly the whole thing. I was in the hotel room with a man who said he was representing the agency, he seemed nervous and on edge and he told me we were waiting for the stylist to arrive.

‘There was a knock on the door and he told me to go to the bedroom and this woman walked in and a few seconds later armed police burst in and took us all away – I was on the phone to my patents at the time and they heard everything.’

Mr Scaringella said: ‘As Greta says we are happy with the result but the compensation is completely inadequate, my client suffered a great deal of distress throughout this experience.

‘The absence of real compensation for unjust detention in the Italian legal system is undoubtedly a violation of human rights and we plan to take the case to the European Court of Human rights, to try and force a change in the law.’

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