Former teaching assistant and the founder of Promessa Organic Jersey Ltd, Glyn Gordon Mitchell, had faced a two-day Magistrate’s Court trial – the first case to be heard of its kind in Jersey.
Mr Mitchell denied one count of knowingly making a false statement for the purpose of obtaining a registration card for Jonathan Zach Wright – a soil scientist from the United States.
Giving evidence in his defence yesterday, he said: ‘It was a mistake and I regret doing it. It has got me into a lot of trouble.’
Pushed by his advocate, Mike Preston, as to whether he deliberately deceived authorities, he said: ‘I did not knowingly make any false statements.’
During the trial the Magistrate’s Court heard that Mr Mitchell applied to be able to employ a ‘licensed’ member of staff [formerly known as J-category] which was rejected in July 2015. He appealed and was then granted a licence to employ a registered member of staff on a three-year basis. Registered employees can only live in certain accommodation.
Yesterday Mr Mitchell told the court that on hearing the ‘good news’ he had been given a licence to employ a Registered employee, he got in touch with Social Security about getting Mr Wright, who was already in Jersey, a registration card. A member of staff, it was heard, sent the defendant a template letter needed to obtain a card for a Licensed member of staff. No documents are required to get a Registered registration card.
‘I was confused,’ Mr Mitchell told the court about receiving the Licensed template letter.
He later added: ‘There was no crib sheets that came along with it that explained the difference [between Registered and Licensed]. I thought that a Registered employee was a Licensed employee. I just believed I would be given the right form and that was it.’
Asked by Advocate Preston why he ‘ticked the Licensed box’ on the document, Mr Mithcell said: ‘There was no Registered tick box on there.’
Months later Mr Mitchell completed his biannual manpower returns form. In it he declared he employed Mr Wright on a Licensed basis. The information triggered a red flag on the Population Office’s computer system and an investigation was launched.
It was also heard that Mr Mitchell founded Promessa Organic Ltd in 2014 after his god-daughter died of mercury poisoning. Originally the business worked alongside a company in Sweden on a new method of disposing of human remains instead of cremation which releases mercury into the environment. After that he veered into the territory of soil microbiology – which focuses on natural fertilisation processes – and employed Mr Wright.
Relief Magistrate Sarah Fitz, who yesterday found Mr Mitchell not guilty, awarded him reasonable costs for his defence.
