CONVICTED fraudster and former Liberal Democrat donor Michael Brown is facing a hearing in Spain for extradition back to the UK.
He was flown to Madrid on Saturday and handed over to British officials yesterday following his arrest in the Dominican Republic.
The 46-year-old Glaswegian businessman had fled the UK to the Caribbean in 2008, after being convicted of fraud at Southwark Crown Court for stealing £36 million from clients – including £8m from the former chairman of Manchester United, Martin Edwards – by posing as a bond dealer.
He was sentenced in his absence to seven years in prison.
Brown, who had earlier donated £2.4m to the Liberal Democrats, its largest donation to date, had been living on the Caribbean island under the name of Darren Nally.
He was arrested and charged with defrauding people in the tourist town of Punta Canain, although the alleged victims dropped their complaints so he could be extradited.
Brown, who previously lived in Majorca, had posed as a successful bond dealer with connections to royalty to steal money from British clients.
He then secretly used investors' money to fund the LibDem donation and live an "extravagant" lifestyle, including renting office space and a £49,000-a-year apartment in London, where he conducted "negotiations" with Mr Edwards.
The con man also owned a Range Rover, a Bentley and a Porsche, and is believed to have spent £2.5m on a private jet, as well as £400,000 on a yacht.
He is originally from Glasgow, where he claimed he was the son of a lord and had been educated at the prestigious Gordonstoun School in Moray, as well as St Andrews University.
He had, in fact, failed his maths O level at a local school, before completing a City and Guilds in catering at the then Glasgow College of Food Technology.
A City of London Police spokesman said: "Michael Brown was deported from the Dominican Republic and landed in Madrid on Saturday morning, accompanied by officers from the Dominican Republic.
"City of London Police will be taking the appropriate steps to bring him back to the UK, via a European Arrest Warrant."
Detective Superintendent Bob Wishart said: "The City of London Police is pleased that after four years evading British justice, Mr Brown is a step closer to returning to the UK to start his prison sentence.
"We hope that him facing justice will bring some closure to the victims who suffered as a result of his frauds."
A spokesman for the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) said: "The process would be for an individual to be taken to Madrid for an extradition hearing. Once that extradition is agreed there's a 10-day period for him to be extradited to the UK. We would expect the process to start early next week."
MP for Ross, Skye and Lochaber, Charles Kennedy, was LibDem leader at the time of the donation and said in September his party had gone the extra mile to check out Brown before it accepted the money. He said: "We were very careful, we always were in the LibDems, to keep a distance, a buffer zone, over donations."
After investigation, The Electoral Commission ruled in 2009 the party could keep the money, finding they had accepted the donation in good faith.
A LibDem spokesman said: "We support any moves to bring this man to justice."
Current LibDem leader Nick Clegg said: "I'm very pleased he's coming back to serve his sentence.
"I should stress that this is something which happened as far as the Liberal Democrats are concerned before I was even an MP, let alone leader.
"What I've been told is the Electoral Commission in 2009 looked at this exhaustively, as far as the receipt of that money by the Liberal Democrats from one of his companies, and categorically concluded the money was received in good faith and all the controls, all the checks that should have been made were reasonably made.
"If we'd been shown wanting on those accounts then of course we should pay the money back."
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