The export of military goods leads to Guernsey's jail sentences.
01/11/2024
On 17 January 2024, it was reported that a Swedish national who responded to an invitation for entrepreneurs to relocate to Sark was jailed for 12 months for breaching Customs regulations regarding importing and exporting military goods from the island to an embargoed jurisdiction (Macau. China) where floatation boards.
Gal Fridman (59) had pleaded guilty to two counts of violating customs and excise laws:
- Making false import declarations for ballistic shields and body armour panels and
- Exporting military goods, namely bullet-proof shields, without permission to Macau, a special administrative region of China.
Crown Advocate Fiona Russell said it was the first case before the Guernsey courts.
Fridman ran a bespoke body armour supply business called Swedish Body Armour in various European countries for three decades.
At the end of 2022, he first encountered legal issues when living and operating out of Sark.
The Royal Court rejected his explanations, saying “Guernsey must play its part” in upholding international obligations and trade restrictions intended to prevent violence and brutality.
A consignment of goods was manufactured and shipped to Guernsey from a Chinese factory between November and December 2022. It contained 162 items valued at around €6,000.
Fridman arranged with various local freight companies to store and forward some of the 20 boxes to Macau and the remainder to Sark.
He described the goods as “float boards” and instructed the freight handler to change an invoice describing them as bulletproof shields.
Customs officers later inspected these and found bulletproof shields, ballistic shields, and body plates.
After liaising with UK authorities, the Border Agency determined they were military items and discovered an active arms embargo for China, Hong Kong, and Macau, which Fridman did not have the required license to circumvent.
Fridman was arrested at the airport after disembarking a flight from London Gatwick on June 14, 2023.
A search warrant executed on his Sark address found the remaining six boxes, which contained 90 pieces of body armour and one shield that he was customising.
Sources
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