A former Isle of Wight hotelier who funnelled hundreds of thousands of pounds through Jersey bank accounts, before moving the money to Spain, has been jailed for 21 months – having previously argued that prosecuting him again amounted to double jeopardy.
Martin Hill, 58, previously operated the Shanklin Beach Hotel and Burlington Hotel on the Isle of Wight, where he committed VAT fraud between 2014 and 2016.
Hill under-declared sales at the hotels and pocketed VAT charged to guests, with an HMRC investigation subsequently launched after he applied for a tax rebate that he was unable to justify.
In 2019, the defendant pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court to 3 VAT evasion offences and was jailed for 30 months. He was also banned from acting as a company director for 7 years and ordered to repay £550,000.
However, Hill had moved proceeds from the fraud through Jersey’s banking system.
Money was transferred from a Tesco Bank account in the UK to an account with Santander International in Jersey, with £165,500, £10,000 and £86,500 transferred during 2017.
At one stage, more than £340,000 in criminal proceeds was held in the Jersey account.
In January 2018, Hill transferred £340,500 from Jersey to an account with CaixaBank in Spain. The funds were subsequently used to help acquire a villa in the Alicante area, where Hill was living.
He also converted £28,487 into €31,392 within his Jersey bank account between May 2017 and June 2018.
As reported by the Comsure Group, in September 2024, Hill appeared before Jersey’s Royal Court by video link from his home in Alicante and pleaded guilty to 6 offences relating to the handling, possession, conversion and removal of criminal property.
Hill had been due to travel to Jersey for sentencing in November 2024 but did not do so, resulting in the Royal Court issuing a warrant for his arrest and ordering his extradition from Spain.
He subsequently fought extradition through the Spanish courts and pursued a case at the European Court of Human Rights, arguing that the Jersey proceedings amounted to double jeopardy because he had already been punished in England over the underlying VAT fraud.
Hill claimed that the Jersey prosecution was effectively a ‘copy-paste’ of the case dealt with in England.
Once in Jersey, Hill also made an application for the proceedings to be halted on double jeopardy grounds, but the Royal Court rejected his argument.
During proceedings, Hill described it as ‘palpable nonsense’ to portray him as a professional money launderer and said the continued pursuit of the case amounted to ‘kicking a man when he’s buried’.
At sentencing, Hill accepted responsibility for his offending, saying: “I fully accept what I have done. I committed these offences, and I stand before you waiting to be sentenced and would like to bring these matters to an end.
“I fully accept everything that I have done.”
Advocate Paul Nicholls, defending, sought a suspended sentence, arguing that this would be proportionate given Hill had already been punished in England and taking his mitigation into account.
The court also heard that Hill had serious health issues and that his family depended on him working to pay the mortgage on their home in Spain.
However, Bailiff Robert MacRae, sitting with Jurats Christensen and Powell, ruled that the offending was too serious for a suspended sentence.
The Bailiff described the offending as a ‘professional’ money-laundering operation involving multiple bank accounts used to hide the proceeds of VAT fraud, as well as buying and selling a flat and moving money to Spain.
The court was told that the Jersey accounts had been opened while Hill knew he was under investigation by HMRC.
The Bailiff told the court: “We agree that sentencing in Jersey for money-laundering should encompass a strong deterrent element, as Jersey is an international finance centre which is zealous in upholding its strong reputation.”
He added that using Jersey’s banking system to launder the proceeds of crime committed anywhere in the world was ‘unacceptable and will not be tolerated’.
Hill was jailed for a total of 21 months for the 6 offences, including converting or transferring criminal property, possession of criminal property and removing criminal property from Jersey.
