Eco entrepreneur accused of employment licence fraud

Tuesday 24 October 2017

The wife of an American biologist who relocated his family to Jersey has claimed that her family were forced to live such a “secluded” life that neighbours questioned whether they were under witness protection because his boss failed to secure the appropriate work permit for him.

The allegation was made during the Magistrate’s Court trial of Glyn Mitchell (48), who is accused of knowingly obtaining an employment licence through fraudulent means in 2015. He denies the charge.

Mr Mitchell had hoped to bring one of the world’s few soil biology experts, US-based Zach Wright, to the island to join his new agricultural endeavour, Promessa Soil.

Taking the advice of Dr Elaine Ingham, the foremost authority on the subject, Mr Wright was convinced to take on the “amazing opportunity.” Giving evidence from Omaha, Nebraska, via video link, he said that he was led to believe that the Jersey and wider UK and EU market was extremely fertile.

The family had also expected the endeavour to be “lucrative” and allow them to earn enough money to buy a house on the island, his wife, a mother-of-two and part-time hypnotherapist, recounted.

The Wrights sold their US home and cars, scheduling a move to Jersey in August 2015 in the belief that a job - and the relevant employment permissions - would be secure by the time they arrived.

But Mr Mitchell had failed to secure any registered or licensed worker permissions for his fledgling enterprise. He later appealed this with the Housing and Work Advisory Group (HAWAG), which is chaired by the Chief Minister, and was accordingly granted a registered permission in autumn - not the licensed (formerly J-cat) permission he had originally hoped for. This new permission meant that the family were only allowed to lease certain kinds of accommodation.

Moreover, it held a condition that Mr Wright’s status would have to be reviewed within one year and that the company would have to demonstrate that at least 400 people had visited Jersey to undertake training with the soil cultivation company.

Speaking separately under questioning by prosecution legal adviser Susie Sharpe, Mr and Mrs Wright alleged that Mr Mitchell had not properly communicated to them that they had not received the full permissions they had originally expected.

Once this permission had been granted by HAWAG, Mr Mitchell accompanied Mr Wright to Social Security in order that he could obtain a registration card. During this time, Mr Mitchell handed over a piece of documentation - a ‘template letter’ - which is only given when applying for a ‘Licensed’ card. The prosecution claim that this was deliberate, while Advocate Mike Preston, defending, suggested that this could have been a mistake. Mr Wright was subsequently wrongly handed such a card, contrary to the permission that had been given by HAWAG.

After the card was obtained, the family were able to transfer a lease on a St Clement house into their own names, which had previously been held in that of Mr Mitchell’s 19-year-old son in a bid to take advantage of a legal loophole allowing them to stay in licensed accommodation for at least three months so long as the key leaseholder is an entitled person.

Up to that point, however, Mr and Mrs Wright described how they felt that they were forced into a state of “hiding.” Having arrived on the island without the correct permissions, they entered as ‘tourists’ - a status meaning that their children could not be enrolled at a local primary school, nor could the family freely access Jersey’s healthcare system. Had they known, Mr Wright said, they would not have come. “It broke my heart,” he told the Court.

Stuck without permission to officially live or work on the island, Mr Wright said he spent his initial months on the island keeping a “low profile until things went through”, having allegedly been told that drawing attention to his situation could “end the business.”

Without an ‘official’ home address, the family were unable to set up phone or internet contracts and said that they had to go to Mr Mitchell’s house to do so, leaving them out of touch with their own family. When Mr Wright claimed he would buy his own phone, he was allegedly repeatedly dissuaded by Mr Mitchell who promised a company iPhone 7 that “never materialised.” He added that he had expected he would be allowed his own laboratory in the house, but had instead had to work in a “cold, stinky garage” because Mr Mitchell’s son had taken up residence in the third bedroom due to house the lab.

Throughout his time in Jersey, he told the Court that he felt Mr Mitchell had led him on a path of “complete and utter deceit” and accused Mr Mitchell of being a “pathological liar” - an accusation denied by the defence.

Mr Wright said that the first time he questioned Mr Mitchell’s honesty was shortly before the family were due to arrive in Jersey. Mr Wright claimed that Mr Mitchell told him to “make up a story” that he was only travelling with his dog, Lola, because it was a rescue dog due to be delivered to Mr Mitchell. The reason for the story, Mr Mitchell allegedly claimed, was because he believed the estate the family were due to live on did not permit dogs.

But, giving evidence before the Court, their landlord said that this was not the case, and indeed many of the people living there - including the neighbours - owned dogs.

As their time in Jersey drew on, Mrs Wright described a growing sense that “things felt weird” and that the fact that their young children did not begin attending school for quite some time had aroused the suspicions of their neighbours, who even questioned whether they were under witness protection.

They were later evicted from their property by the Population Office, whose system had flagged an anomaly following a company manpower return submitted by Mr Mitchell.

Mrs Wright said that, given the family’s uncomfortable circumstances, the notice was almost comforting. “I’ve never been evicted before, but never thought an eviction would elicit a sense of relief. But it did, and I could wrap my mind around something that was real,” she commented.

The trial continues this morning.