Jersey Unreported Judgments

ROYAL COURT

(Samedi Division)

13 February 1998

Before: Sir Philip Bailhache, Bailiff., and Jurats

Herbert and Le Brocq

AG

-v-

Alain Daniel Jollois MacGregor

1 count of fraud (count 1)

1 count of obtaining services by false pretences (count 2)

Age: 34

Plea: Guilty to count 2; not guilty to count 1, which plea the Crown accepted.

Details of Offence:

Defendant checked into the Lobster Pot Hotel and Restaurant with another male. Whilst at the hotel the Defendant entertained guests lavishly and ran up an account of £8,510.68. Throughout his stay the Defendant repeatedly told the Managers of the Hotel that he was awaiting the transfer of monies to his account at Lloyds Bank in Jersey. The Defendant had no such account and was apprehended when attempting to leave the Island to go to Sark.

Details of Mitigation:

None save for the plea of Guilty notwithstanding which the Defendant maintained that he had an ‘agreement’ with the Management of the Lobster Pot and that the money was not due. The Defendant also ‘challenged’ the accuracy of his record of previous convictions.

Previous Convictions:

Numerous in France for similar offences, the Defendant having been sent to prison on four separate occasions for similar offences.

Conclusions:

Count 2; 18 months imprisonment, with recommendations for deportation.

Sentence and Observations

of the Court:

2: Conclusions granted.

nb The Crown also requested that the Court make a recommendation under Article 6 of the Immigration Act, 1971 that the Defendant be deported. The Court made the recommendation but ordered that the Defendant not be detained in custody after his sentence and pending the Deportation order being made.

DE Le Cornu, Esq., Crown Advocate

The accused on his own behalf

Advocate CPG Lakeman as Amicus Curiae

JUDGMENT

THE BAILIFF: MacGregor, the Court has taken careful note of all the submissions which you have made to us and I should like to make it clear that the Court is passing sentence only in respect of count 2 on the indictment, that is to say, the admitted fraud upon the "Lobster Pot". The Court considers that the conclusions of the Crown Advocate are entirely right and proper and you are accordingly sentenced to 18 months imprisonment on that count. The Court also will make a recommendation to the Lieutenant Governor that you should be deported from the island having served your sentence of imprisonment but in the meantime the Court will order that you be not detained in custody once you have completed, of course, the sentence of imprisonment which the Court has passed upon you.

(To the interpreter]Could you make sure that the defendant understands all that? May I repeat perhaps what I said so far as the deportation is concerned. The Court is recommending to the Lieutenant Governor that MacGregor be deported from the island, that is the first thing. The second thing is that once the sentence of imprisonment has been served, if the Lieutenant Governor has still not made a decision on the deportation, MacGregor will not be remanded in custody for any further period.

Authorities

AG -v- Brannan (27 February 1997) Jersey Unreported

AG -v- Brennan (13 June 1997) Jersey Unreported

Immigration Act 1971, Schedule 3