Select a region
A former Jersey-based doctor who is behind bars for a long history of financial crimes has been given extra prison time for spending thousands on expensive dinners and holidays while owing millions.
Gerald Martin Smith, who was jailed earlier this year for obtaining a covid loan with a fake name and using part of it to help pay off a £72m court order, has been sentenced to an additional 13 months in prison.
Smith, who was previously jailed for stealing millions from a software company, deliberately “obstructed” investigators from taking control of his properties in central London to help repay the millions he owed to UK taxpayers.
The Serious Fraud Office, which oversees financial crime cases in the UK, uncovered that Smith orchestrated a plan to conceal the ownership of a Bloomsbury property containing three apartments to avoid paying an £80 million court order.
The former doctor persuaded an old friend from medical school to transfer ownership of the property to a company registered in the British Virgin Islands that Smith secretly controlled.
Pictured: The SFO said the latest sentence should be a warning to Mr Smith and others that "we won’t stop in our recovery and enforcement of court orders against him".
Smith also changed the locks and arranged for two tenants to occupy the flat to further obstruct the selling of the property that was required to recover stolen funds.
Investigators also discovered that Smith continued to breach court-imposed spending restrictions by receiving regular financial support from his brother.
During a 19-month period, he spent over £53,000 eating out and going on holiday.
Smith frequented Michelin-star restaurants and celebrity haunts in the West End of London, and dined at leading restaurants in Jersey and Mallorca.
The former doctor – who is understood to have moved to Jersey in 2000 under the then-1(1)k high-value residency scheme – was jailed for eight years in 2006 for stealing £35 million from a software company called Izodia.
The theft caused the collapse of the stock market-listed company and shareholders lost all their investments.
In 2007, Smith was ordered to pay a confiscation order of £41m – the largest order made in criminal proceedings at the time.
He did not pay any of the stolen money back following his release, and he told the court in 2019 that he was too poor to pay back what he owed – despite visiting numerous luxury destinations and using a private jet for more than 100 trips in a single year.
In 2022, Smith swerved jail after what was described as "lavish" spending of frozen assets at bars, restaurants and wine merchants. He was instead handed an eight-month suspended sentence.
Mr Smith’s criminal record dates back to 1993 when he was jailed for two years for taking £2 million from the pension fund of Farr Group, a construction company.
Director of the Serious Fraud Office Nick Ephgrave said: “We are determined to prevent criminals benefiting from their crime and wherever assets are hidden or obstructed, we will go after them.
“This sentence should serve as a warning to Mr Smith and those assisting him that we won’t stop in our recovery and enforcement of court orders against him.”
Jersey doctor jailed again over "incredible degree of manipulation, conceit and greed"
Retirement business loses fight for share of fraudster doctor's wealth
Retirement business fights for share of Jersey fraudster’s liquidated assets
Jersey fraudster swerves jail after “lavish” spending of frozen assets
Jersey fraudster doctor facing further jail time
Jersey fraudster bought fine art worth $10m while owing millions
Jersey fraudster doctor owing £70m to face UK trial
Jetsetting fraudster ‘too poor’ to pay £66m debt
Comments
Comments on this story express the views of the commentator only, not Bailiwick Publishing. We are unable to guarantee the accuracy of any of those comments.