A British mining engineer has escaped from house arrest in The Gambia where he was awaiting trial on charges of illegally exporting uranium.

Charlie Northfield was smuggled across the border to Senegal by agents for a British security firm. He returned to his home in Plymouth yesterday, having spent six months in the Gambian Mile 2 Prison or under under house arrest in the capital, Banjul.

The father of three was spirited out of Banjul at the weekend and driven 125 miles though the bush before swimming a flood-swollen river to cross the border into Senegal. He was flown from the Senegalese capital, Dakar, to Morocco and then on to Britain.

Mr Northfield, 48, had been held on the orders of the Gambian Government, which accused his employers, Carnegie Minerals, of illegal exporting. He was held in prison for ten days before being released on bail of $450,000 (£253,000) to await trial on three charges of “economic crime” and one of theft.

He described the escape as being like “something in a film”. Mr Northfield said yesterday: “I was driven in a few different taxis and we passed through several police checkpoints. The driver sorted things out, but I was worried someone would recognise me as my face had been plastered on the front pages of their papers.

“Probably the most frightening part was reaching a river that I had been told would be shallow enough to walk through. It was swollen and quite fast-flowing so I had to strip off and swim across. The river was about 50 yards across and I was swept another 100 yards downstream. By the time I reached the other side I was completely knackered. I really have a great sense of relief. The whole thing has been a nightmare.”

Mr Northfield said that he had left The Gambia because he believed that he would not be given a fair trial. “I had been to court 13 times but they were no closer to starting the trial and I had a strong sense they never would be,” he said. “The ordeal was not going to end unless we did something. We had tried negotiating but to no avail, and I was feeling desperate.”

Mr Northfield's passport had been confiscated by the Gambian authorities and he had to obtain temporary papers to fly home. He is now waiting for a new passport before he can travel to Thailand to be reunited with his wife, Neung, and children, Charles, 18, Thomas, 11, and Natalie, 7. “It has been extremely difficult for them, as it was hard to communicate,” he said.

The escape was organised by Martin McGowan-Scanlon, a former army captain who heads a security consultancy in Torquay, Devon. He said that he had arranged the rescue because he was incensed at Mr Northfield's treatment. “The regime in Gambia used Charlie as a pawn in its disagreement with his former employers,” he said.

Mr Northfield travelled to The Gambia last October to manage the company's operations there. In February the authorities charged him and the company over the alleged understatement of the value and content of mineral exports, and cancelled the company's mining licence. They denied all charges.

Crispin Grey-Johnson, the Gambian Foreign Minister, said that 20,000 tonnes of sand with “heavy concentration of uranium” had been exported to Australia and China between 2006 and December 2007.

Times Recommends

• Mandela’s tribe threatens President Zuma
• The French empire strikes back
• Wife of cheating governor exacts a political revenge