Six months jail term for former Lib Dem donor Michael Brown

Published on 25/06/2012 15:35

MICHAEL Brown, the former Liberal Democrat donor, has been sentenced to six months in prison after he was convicted for an £8 million fraud.

• Former Liberal Democrat donor sentenced to six months in prison for breaching bail conditions

• Six month sentence will be added to existing seven year sentence for £8 million fraud

• Used money obtained fraudulently to donate £2.4m to Lib Dems, who were later cleared of wrong-doing

He went on the run after stealing nearly £8 million from former Manchester United chairman Martin Edwards.

But he was detained in the Dominican Republic last January.

Today, Judge Alistair McCreath sentenced Brown to six months for breaching his bail, which will be added on to the seven-year sentence for fraud he received in his absence in May 2009, a court official said.

After posing as a well-connected bonds dealer, he secretly used investors’ money to fund a record donation of £2.4 million to the Lib Dems’ 2005 election war chest. The party was cleared of wrong-doing.

Last month a judge at Southwark Crown Court directed Brown to start his seven-year jail sentence after he was extradited to the UK via Spain.

A court official at Southwark Crown Court said today: “Michael Brown has received a sentence of six months imprisonment for breach of bail.

“Nine days he spent in prison in Spain will be deducted from the sentence, which will run consecutively with the sentence he received for theft, perverting the course of justice and transferring criminal property in May 2009.”