A convicted fraudster who pleaded guilty to laundering money through Jersey bank accounts – despite never setting foot in the island – has told Express he is pushing back against his extradition from Spain.

Martin John Hill said bringing him to Jersey would violate his human rights, in a last-ditch attempt to stay in Spain.

His wife has confirmed he is now in detention and is due to be brought to Jersey later this week.

The 58-year-old man has no ties to the island, the Royal Court previously heard.

In September 2024, Hill appeared in the Jersey court via video link from his Costa Blanca home to plead guilty to six counts of money laundering.

The prosecution offered no evidence on a seventh charge.

Hill was due to be sentenced on 21 November 2024, but after he refused to travel to Jersey for the hearing, the Royal Court asked for a warrant to be issued for his arrest and ordered him to be extradited.

Jersey charges “a copy-paste” of case in England

Hill has said that he planned to “voluntarily surrender to the Spanish authorities” on Monday 13 April – but was continuing to fight against his extradition to Jersey.

Hill added that he had fought against his extradition in the Spanish courts, and was taking Spain to the European Court of Human Rights.

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.

Extraditing him to Jersey would deprive him of liberty when he has already been punished in England, said Hill.

Southwark Crown Court knew about the transactions through Jersey when he was sentenced there for three charges of VAT evasion in 2017, said Hill. He claimed that Southwark Crown Court decided not to prosecute that part of his file.

“The entire route, including Jersey, was subject to judicial scrutiny and criminal prosecution,” according to his complaint to the European Court of Human Rights.

“Moreover, it must be emphasised that Mr Hill duly disclosed to the British authorities a comprehensive list of all his bank accounts.

“Consequently, the authorities were in full possession of the relevant financial information.”

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 asked the court to order the revocation of the extradition order and to prohibit Spain from surrendering him to Jersey.

Hill also asked the court to provisionally suspend the execution of the extradition.

Meanwhile, he said he planned to argue double jeopardy in Jersey.

Jersey money laundering charges

Between 2014 and 2016, Hill had made inaccurate tax declarations to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs for two Isle of Wight hotels: the Burlington Hotel, and the Shanklin Beach Hotel.

He under-declared sales for the hotels and pocketed the VAT he charged guests.

In 2019, Hill was sentenced for three charges of VAT evasion at Southwark Crown Court.

The hotelier was jailed for 30 months and banned from being a company director for seven years.

 The six charges of money laundering in Jersey relate to the same fraudulent funds.

Hill admitted that he had transferred the money from a UK account at Tesco Bank to an account at Santander International’s Jersey branch. 

In 2017, he transferred £165,500, then £10,000, and then £86,500 to Jersey.

He also admitted one count of possessing the proceeds of criminal conduct, which amounted to over £340,000 held in a Jersey bank account.

He pleaded guilty to one count of removing fraudulent money from Jersey by transferring the majority of the above figure to a Spanish bank account. 

Hill sent £340,500 from his Jersey bank account to an account at Spanish bank CaixaBank in January 2018.

The final charge that he pleaded guilty to was converting criminal money.

The court heard that Hill had converted a total of £28,487 to €31,392 within his Jersey bank account during May 2017 and June 2018.

Hill pleaded not guilty to a seventh charge of removing criminal property from Jersey.

This charge centred around the fact that he had allegedly sent €26,605 of criminal money from Jersey to Spain – using bank transfers, cash withdrawals and debit card spending.

The Crown did not produce any evidence for this final charge, and the case was dropped.