AN Alicante-based former hotelier who has pleaded guilty to charges in Jersey has been arrested and is set to be brought to the Island – but he is fighting against the extradition in the European Court of Human Rights.
Martin John Hill (58) is claiming that the charges he is facing in Jersey are simply a “copy-paste” of offences already considered in an English court – and that proceedings in Jersey constituted double jeopardy.
The Royal Court has previously heard that he has no ties to Jersey, except for a Jersey bank account he used to launder money he illicitly made at his Isle of Wight hotels.
In 2019, he was jailed for 30 months for three VAT evasion offences by Southwark Crown Court, having made inaccurate tax declarations for two hotels: the Burlington Hotel and the Shanklin Beach Hotel.
He under-declared sales for the hotels and pocketed the VAT he charged guests.
That money, more than £300,000, was transferred from England to Spain, via an account at Santander International’s Jersey Branch.
In September 2024, Hill appeared in Jersey’s Royal Court via videolink and pleaded guilty to three charges of converting or transferring criminal property, one of possession or control of criminal property, one of removing criminal property from Jersey, and one of converting or transferring criminal property.
He did not travel to Jersey for his sentencing and the court ordered a warrant for his arrest and for him to be extradited.
Hill told the JEP that he had fought his extradition in the Spanish courts, but that he would “voluntarily surrender” to the authorities. His wife has now said he is in custody.
Having exhausted his options in the Spanish courts, Hill said he is fighting his extradition in the ECHR, where he said he had brought a case against Spain.
According to documents published on his website, Hill is arguing in the European Court of Human Rights that the Jersey prosecution constitutes double jeopardy – the prosecution or punishment of a person twice for the same offence.
The transactions, he claimed, had already been considered in England – though they were “laid on file” rather than specifically prosecuted,
Extraditing him to Jersey would deprive him of liberty when he has already been punished in England, said Hill.
The charges in Jersey, he said, were “essentially a copy-paste” of the case in England.
Hill said that Spain’s extradition of him “would expose him to further deprivation of liberty based on criminal proceedings prohibited by the principle of double jeopardy”.
He told the JEP in a statement: “I have already served a custodial sentence and complied fully with the orders made by the United Kingdom courts.
“My legal challenge concerns whether a second prosecution based on the same financial conduct is compatible with established protections against duplicate prosecution under European human-rights law.”
The case “raises broader questions regarding cross-border prosecutions”, he added.
