DRESSED in a boiler suit and shackled in his cell, a landowner from Dorset remains in an Alabama jail after failing to afford his bail conditions.

Giles Carlyle-Clarke could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted of having been involved in drugs smuggling from the Caribbean to the US in the 1980s.

A hearing is due to take place next week to decide whether the 48-year-old local businessman will face trial.

He vehemently protests his innocence but fears the unfamiliar American system could leave him with no choice but to plea-bargain as other suspects in the case have already done.

Mr Carlyle-Clarke attended a hearing last week in which bail was offered providing he stump up a £250,000 bond, resides in a house in the area but not with his lawyer, and agrees to wear a tag.

His solicitor Graham Compton said: "The terms were such that bail was impossible, he doesn't have that sort of money.

"He is land rich, cash poor."

If prosecutors do proceed with a trial it is expected to take place in early September.

Mr Compton continued: "The jail conditions are poor he cannot properly prepare his case because when his lawyer goes to visit Giles is behind a wire mesh and there's no privacy there are other people all around them.

"He is manacled all the time. They're not the conditions we're used to here.

"He is missing his family tremendously but he is coping."

Mr Carlyle-Clarke's extradition to the States on July 12 this year followed an eight-year legal battle, including two unsuccessful appeals in the High Court and the European Court of Human Rights.

He leaves behind a son Max, 10, for whom he was sole carer and a daughter Jessica, 12, who lives with her mother.

The furniture importer, whose family has owned the ancient Win-terborne Clenston Estate since 1066, moved in high circles in the 1980s and is accused of allowing his yacht to be used for one of a string of drug importations.

The Jamaican prime suspect in the case was a friend of Mr Carlyle-Clarke's and though the alleged ringleader was arrested, he later jumped bail and is rumoured to have made his escape in a seaplane.

Dozens of arrests have since been made with suspects plea bargaining to lessen their own penalties by handing prosecutors the names of other alleged culprits.

Mr Carlyle-Clarke's name has since come into the frame.