Spanish court reopens trial of Scottish fraudster

Martin Edwards, former Manchester United chief, was one of Michael Brown's victims. Picture: PA

Spanish authorities want to find out if the disgraced Liberal Democrat donor used cash from the victims of his scams to fund his luxury lifestyle on the holiday island.

Glasgow-born Brown was arrested at his villa in the pretty town of Esporles in south west Majorca in 2006 over a £5.5 million UK fraud and hauled back to Britain to face trial. He was convicted in his absence after skipping bail and fleeing to the Dominican Republican on a false passport – before being arrested at his Caribbean hideout and flown back to the UK via Spain in April 2012 to start his seven-year sentence.

A Spanish criminal probe into Brown, who owned several properties in Majorca and used a fleet of expensive cars, a yacht and a private jet, was shelved several years ago.

A judge in Palma has agreed to reopen the case at the request of anti-corruption prosecutors.

The move, which is being appealed by Brown’s Spanish lawyer, paves the way for the jailed Scot to be questioned in prison in Britain.

The case is expected to take place following the delivery of a formal written request known as a letter rogatory, the same procedure used by a judge in Marbella to question Sir Sean Connery and his wife Micheline Roquebrune at their home in the Bahamas over a Spanish land deal on the site of their former home.

Anti-corruption prosecutors are said to suspect Brown, 50, laundered money from his bogus deals through property and other assets in Majorca. If charged, he could expect to be sent to Spain to face trial after serving his UK prison sentences.

Brown, whose victims included former Manchester United boss Martin Edwards, got another six months’ jail in June 2012 on top of his first seven-year sentence for fleeing Britain to escape punishment in 2008.

The fraudster became the Lib Dems’ biggest single donor by handing them £2.4m for their 2005 election campaign.

He was arrested in April 2006 in Majorca after it emerged he had been posing as a bogus bond trader to take money from clients who believed he was the Gordonstoun and St Andrews-educated son of a lord and they were being vetted by US embassy officials and Special Branch. One bogus deal involved shares in a non-existent R oil refinery which he falsely claimed involved the late Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky.

Brown went on the run to the Dominican Republic on a false passport in the name of a criminal which was supplied by a convicted drug smuggler with links to organised crime.

He was flown back to Madrid – and subsequently extradited to Britain – after being arrested at his hideaway in the tourist town of Punta Cana.