DEPUTY Philip Ozouf has been sentenced to 120 hours of community service for employing Rwandan nationals at a laundrette he owned and his own home – knowing that it broke the terms of their work permits.
In sentencing the 55-year-old to mandatory work in the community – the equivalent of six months in prison – Commissioner Alan Binnington said the sitting States member and former minister had attempted to subvert the system in order to employ the nationals, who came to work in Jersey in 2022 and 2023.
He did this by employing five individuals who were lawfully entitled to work in hospitality for nine months – but only in that sector. Four of the five lived at Ozouf’s farmstead in St Saviour.
Ozouf had admitted five breaches of the UK Immigration Act, which applies to Jersey, last October.
Yesterday, he was sentenced in the Old Library of the Royal Court. In relation to one of the five individuals whose experiences each formed a charge, Commissioner Binnington told Ozouf: “When your application for a work permit was refused, you devised a scheme to evade the restriction.
“This was not an innocent mistake; this was a deliberate breach of the law to achieve the outcome you wanted.”
However, the Royal Court did accept that Ozouf’s offending – which was for “facilitating and attempting to facilitate breaches” of Jersey’s immigration laws – was at the “lowest level of harm” in that the Rwandans had come to Jersey “lawfully and safely” and there was no suggestion that they were unwilling to work or ungrateful for their income.
But the Court also concluded that Ozouf being a senior politician, which included serving as External Relations Minister for a period when the offences were being committed, was an aggravating factor which meant that his offending met the custodial threshold.
“As a lawmaker, you were aware of the controls and the need for them, but when they did not suit your purpose, you chose to avoid them,” said Commissioner Binnington in passing sentence.
Sentenced alongside Ozouf was Hotel Savoy director Roberto Lora, who had admitted “attempting to facilitate a breach of the immigration laws” by employing one of the Rwandan nationals by employing her as a cleaner once a week at his home, against the terms of her visa.
The court agreed that Lora was far less involved than Ozouf and he was fined £5,000 for his single offence.
Setting out the facts of the case, Crown Advocate William Redgrave said: “Ozouf wanted Rwandans to come to Jersey and work for his laundry business.
“However, the Jersey Customs and Immigration Service refused to issue work permits for this. So, he subverted the system by making an arrangement with Lora, who obtained hospitality work permits on the basis that the work would be at the Savoy.
“Then, once the visa applications were approved and the Rwandan nationals were in Jersey, with a contract to work at the Savoy, Ozouf employed them part time or full time himself, without a contract, at his laundry business and/or at his home.”
He added: “Ozouf benefited from those breaches because he was able to employ Rwandans on low wages on work for which they had no permission from the authorities.
“Ozouf portrayed himself as a philanthropist, helping people from a poor African country to come and get work. However, there was a commercial advantage for him: Rwandans were content to work for lower wages than local people.
“They were paid between £10.50 and £11 per hour by the Savoy, and between £11 and £12.50 for their work at the launderette. Ozouf kept them busy and was late in paying them. They were grateful for the work, but it could be said that in this way he exploited them.”
Advocate Redgrave stressed that Lora did not admit to helping Ozouf obtain staff for the laundrette and was not being sentenced for this.
The prosecuting lawyer shared details with the court of each of the five Rwandans who Ozouf had illegally employed.
In 2022, the politician had unsuccessfully applied for one individual to work at his since-closed business, My Eco Laundry at Augrès Garage in Trinity. A second application was also refused.
Around two months later, Lora submitted a work permit to employ the individual as a laundry assistant at the Savoy, which was successful. However, she was also soon working at Ozouf’s laundrette, despite Ozouf acknowledging in a WhatsApp message that the worker’s employment there was contrary to the work permit rules.
Another of the Rwandans, who also worked at the laundrette on her days off from the Savoy, also worked at Ozouf’s St Saviour home, where she lived.
She was asked by the politician to do his laundry, clean the house, paint the property and organise his belongings, for which she was paid, however payment was not made for some time.
Advocate Redgrave suggested a ten-month prison sentence for Ozouf and a £5,000 fine for Lora.
Calling for a non-custodial sentence, Advocate James Bell, defending, said his client accepted full responsibility for employing individuals “who were legally in Jersey but working outside the strict terms of their permission”.
“He expresses genuine remorse,” he added.
The lawyer argued that the law which Ozouf had broken had been devised with illegal immigration, boat crossings and criminal gangs in mind, so this case was “well below the intent of the law” which had been “designed for an entirely different level of offending”.
Advocate Bell added that Ozouf had been keen to support Rwandans coming to Jersey and saw an opportunity to help them find employment and fill roles that were not otherwise easy to fill. He invested his own money into an employment agency, he was paying staff more than they were getting at the Savoy, and he paid for flights over.
However, due to family tragedy, including the loss of his partner, diagnosed ADHD and the pressure of being External Relations Minister from July 2022, Ozouf found it difficult to manage his life, Advocate Bell said.
“This situation should not be categorised as exploitation,” he added. “There was no malice and his motives was pure, even if the approach was misguided and at times chaotic.
“He was well-intentioned, but his actions were ill-advised and he took a shortcut. His actions should be seen as foolish rather than malicious.”
Advocate Bell added: “Mr Ozouf accepts in his chaotic dealings with the laundrette over a short period of time he chose expediency over process.
He continued: “He has suffered personal, financial and reputational loss. His political career – which he has devoted significant amount of time to – is in tatters.
“I suggest the court should consider this offending more closely resembles a technical employment breach rather than facilitating illegal immigration.”
Delivering the court’s sentence, Commissioner Alan Binnington, revealed that Ozouf, while on remand ahead of sentencing, had missed three appointments with his probation officer and warned failing to complete his community service was not an option, stating: “The key to the cell door is entirely in your hands.”
He added that while the Royal Court positively referred to Ozouf’s many supportive references and his own letter of remorse, said that his psychological issues “went some ways to explain your behaviour but not to justify it.”
It added: “You portrayed yourself as a philanthropist but if that was your intention, you could have found these individuals work within terms of their permit.”
In addition to community service, Ozouf was ordered to contribute £5,000 towards the Crown’s costs.
Commissioner Binnington was sitting with Jurats Elizabeth Dulake and David Le Heuzé.
