Annice Smoel has been reunited with her young daughters at Melbourne airport, saying she only pleaded guilty to stealing a bar mat in Thailand to get out of the country.
The mother of four arrived home in Melbourne on Thursday after spending 18 days in the holiday town of Phuket - including four nights in jail accused of stealing the mat from the Aussie Bar.
"I had to do what I had to do to get out," she told reporters at the airport.
"The governor of Phuket was there and he guaranteed me personally that I wouldn't go to jail if I pleaded guilty.
"If I'd pleaded not guilty it would have taken months to go to trial and I just had to come home."
Ms Smoel and her husband Darren earlier shared a tearful reunion with their four daughters, who'd feared the worst for their mum who was facing a possible five years in jail for a prank gone wrong.
Ms Smoel was celebrating her mother's 60th birthday at the bar when she was arrested. She claimed her friends had put the bar mat in her handbag as a practical joke.
"I'm just so relieved and very happy to see my daughters again, very much so," Ms Smoel said.
"I wasn't free until I was on the plane because they never handed my passport to me.
"They deported me, I was marched through customs and it wasn't until I actually went through customs at Phuket airport that I was actually free."
Ms Smoel said she would never go back to Thailand after her nightmare holiday.
Her husband said they were happy to be home.
"It's been a very long time to be away, we're exhausted but happy to be back," he said.
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