Time is fast running out for a Witney businessman, held in the Gulf State of Oman, who is desperate to get to his mother's funeral.

Jonathan Brown had filled in all the paperwork and made a sworn statement to return to the country, where he owes a £10,000 court fine.

But the funeral of his mother, former Witney town councillor Ruth Brown, is to go ahead at Oxford crematorium at 4.15pm on May 23.

Speaking to the Oxford Mail from Oman, 54-year-old Mr Brown said he was "very pessimistic" about getting out of the country in time.

"I have no idea what happens next. I am told that the earliest I may get an answer is Saturday or Sunday, which is laughable.

"This is incompetence or something worse. I am an ordinary British subject whose mother has died and simply wants to go home to attend her funeral," he said.

Mr Brown's case has been taken up by Witney MP David Cameron, who has been in urgent contact with the Foreign Office.

Mr Cameron said: "It is extremely sad because it does not now look like he will be back in time. The positive thing, though, is that the Government do now seem to accept that there is something wrong with the way he has been treated."

Mr Brown has been barred from leaving Oman for more than a year. He owes £10,000 from a civil court case, involving a business deal that went wrong, and has been denied an appeal.

His mother, sister of the pioneering test tube baby doctor Patrick Steptoe, died on May 9 after a long illness. She lived at Woodstock Road with her daughter Serena Martin.

Mrs Martin told the Gazette: "I cannot understand the difficulties. Of course Jonathan would go back to Oman after the funeral. He has a wife out there and is owed money."