Aspinall’s jail term sticks as crown appeal fails

(CNS): The appeal court has upheld the three-and-a-half-year prison term given to former Deloitte director Robert Aspinall (38) after attempts by the crown to see the white-collar criminal serve more time failed. The three-judge panel confirmed his sentence after hearing submissions Monday from Simon Russel Flint QC, who had argued that the sentence given to Aspinall, who stole almost $500,000, was too lenient. But Apinall’s lawyer, Charles Miskin QC, argued the sentence was not lenient and if anything the term was too long.

Representing the director of public prosecutions, Flint said that the term was “unduly lenient” and did not reflect the full extent of the crimes. He argued the impact that financial crime has on the Cayman Islands. He said that although the judge had noted the “serious, sophisticated offending” in the case by a man “motivated by avarice”, he had handed down too short a term and should have had a much higher starting point, as he calculated the time Aspinall should serve.

Aspinall, however, was not only of good character before he was charged with stealing almost a half million dollars from funds he was liquidating, he had shown an extra-ordinary level of cooperation and paid back, with interest, all the money he had stolen. Miskin argued that the there was a significant amount of mitigation and no aggravating factors.

Following the submissions from the UK legal heavy weights, the Cayman Islands Court of Appeal revealed that they were not changing the sentence and that they would state their reasons in a written judgment at a later date.