The Royal Court has approved a move enabling UK enforcement officers to take control of offshore assets linked to a convicted Jersey fraudster who still owes more than £80 million under a confiscation order.
The case forms part of a long-running effort to recover the proceeds of one of Britain’s most notorious corporate frauds.
Gerald Martin Smith – a former doctor who was understood to have moved to Jersey in 2000 under the then-1(1)k high-value residency scheme – was jailed for eight years by Cambridge Crown Court in 2006 after admitting theft and false accounting.
A year later, an English court ruled that he had benefited from his crimes to the tune of more than £40.9m and ordered him to repay the sum – a figure that has since more than doubled with interest.
Under Jersey’s Proceeds of Crime Law, a ‘saisie judiciaire; was imposed in 2006 to freeze Smith’s assets on the Island.
Among them was Steephill, a substantial property once linked to Smith, which was later sold to his wife, Dr Cochrane, for £2.85m in 2013 following an application by the Viscount.
At the same time, Dr Cochrane offered £300,000 for Smith’s art and wine collections, agreed to cover half of the Viscount’s fees and maintenance costs for Steephill, and purchased two remaining motor vehicles.
The Court later discharged the saisie over those items once payment was made, but left it in place for Smith’s remaining assets.
The latest step in the case, which saw a hearing in Jersey’s Royal Court earlier this month, involved a single share in a Dutch company called “Casa Coloniches B.V.” found by the English Commercial Court to have been held “as a nominee for Mr Smith”.
The Bailiff, Sir Timothy Le Cocq, who presided over the case alone, noted that UK enforcement now wished to take possession of the company because a subsidiary holds property, which it wants to sell off.
Sir Timothy added that Dr Cochrane had previously told the English Commercial Court that she would comply with their requests and make a share transfer to the receivers, and faced a warning that, if she did not do so, she was liable to be found “in contempt of court”.
Gerald Smith, who is currently serving further prison terms in England for fraud and contempt, did not appear in Jersey’s Royal Court to make any arguments in relation to the application, Sir Timothy’s written judgment noted.
He said that after several attempts to confirm whether Smith wanted to take part, he “indicated that he no longer intended to oppose the application and remained neutral”.
Dr Cochrane attended the hearing but was unrepresented.
The judgment noted that she “had been notified that if she were to resist in any way she would be in contempt of court and therefore she made no submissions”.
Sir Timothy concluded that the Court should grant the application to transfer a share of the Dutch company into the hands of court-appointed receivers.
He explained that the decision would bring the current saisie in line with the English orders which all parties – including Dr Cochrane – are bound by.
He added that the order was made “without opposition” and thanked Crown Advocate Sam Brown, acting for the Attorney General, for the “detailed” submissions on which the Court had relied.
