A FRAUDSTER who had to be extradited from Spain has had three months added to his prison sentence for violating bail conditions.
Martin John Hill (58) was jailed last month after he had used a Jersey bank account to funnel hundreds of thousands of pounds in benefits from tax fraud he committed in the Isle of Wight.
He was sentenced last week on one further charge. He should have been in Jersey at a hearing shortly before his trial for the money-laundering started, but instead he appeared via videolink and pleaded guilty. He was later extradited from Spain – a process he opposed through the Spanish courts.
Crown Advocate Sam Brown, prosecuting, said it was a “flagrant and deliberate breach”, that there was “a lengthy period” when Hill was at large, that there was no voluntary surrender and that there needed to be a deterrent element to the sentence.
He said the cost of proceedings could run “in the six figures at present” with just the extradition costing approximately £20,000 to £30,000.
He asked for a consecutive sentence of five months.
Advocate James Corbett, defending, said Hill was entitled to credit for his guilty plea.
His client, he said, had not simply failed to turn up or gone on the run.
“Quite the opposite,” Advocate Corbett said. “He has been a Spanish resident for nearly 30 years. That is his home now. He was at home when he pleaded guilty by videolink in March 2024.”
The Bailiff, Robert MacRae, replied: “You cannot complain about being summoned to a foreign country if that is where you have committed offences.”
Hill had no ties to Jersey and the first time he set foot in the Island was when he was extradited – “not a hotel, but La Moye”, the court heard. His offending may have happened through a Jersey bank account, but Advocate Corbett argued that this had been set up by his bank in Liverpool without his knowledge so that he could convert pounds into euros.
Hill, he said, was entitled to contest his extradition – and was not “free to enjoy copious amounts of sangria” but instead had to report to a Spanish police station daily, adding that Hill had tried to come to Jersey via St Malo but that when he was there, he was told Jersey authorities would not pick him up, and he should return to Spain to be extradited.
Crown Advocate Brown suggested there had been an offer from Jersey that Hill could travel via St Malo, but that nothing was arranged.
Advocate Corbett said this was the first he had heard of Jersey being “amenable” to the solution.
Mr MacRae handed Hill a three-month sentence, consecutive to the 21 months he is already serving for six counts of converting or transferring criminal property, one count of possession of criminal property, and one count of removing criminal property from Jersey.
Handing down the verdict, he said the extradition process had been “complex” with various hearings in Jersey and in Spain, and agreed that there was “an important element of deterrence”.
He accepted that Hill “did make plans to come to Jersey via St Malo”.
