Former Lib Dem Donor Michael Brown Sentenced To Six Months Extra In Jail After Fleeing UK

Ex-Lib Dem Donor Handed More Jail Time After Fleeing UK

Former Liberal Democrat donor Michael Brown has been sentenced to six months in jail for fleeing the UK after he was convicted over an £8 million fraud.

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.

The multimillionaire went on the run after stealing nearly £8m from former Manchester United chairman Martin Edwards, but was arrested in the Dominican Republic last January.

After posing as a well-connected bonds dealer, he secretly used investors' money to fund a record donation of £2.4m 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."

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