He has made an incredible recovery after treatment at a psychiatric hospital in Bangkok. And remarkably it was a private British citizen who came to his aid after seeing pictures of Hewitt up on this website.

The British Embassy had seemingly written him off as either a ‘feckless’ Brit or perhaps as one Embassy employee apparently described him, unofficially and not without cause – ‘a nutter’.

But now his faculties have returned and Hewitt describes himself as ‘The luckiest man in the world’

And from a world in which he thought he had no cash he has emerged to a world where he is rich well beyond the imagination of his paranoiac alter ego with many millions of Thai baht in his bank account.

He puts his good fortune down to his saviour Tracy Cosgrave, of the charity Melissa Cosgrave Children’s Foundation, who rushed down to Pattaya Police station, had him dressed and fed and persuaded police to send him to a psychiatric hospital.

He is also deeply grateful to his landlord Bunchai Thaiurungrattana at his apartment in Pattaya 3rd Road, Soi 16, who safeguarded his belongings, cash and bank books, until he made his recovery.

Andrew Drummond