Camden New Journal - by CHARLOTTE CHAMBERS Published: 27 September 2007
Joe Mendy
In prison for £100, out for £400
Student sent to Spain on forged notes charges released after plea bargain
A STUDENT sent to Spain to face charges of fraud has been freed from a Spanish jail – but only after he pleaded guilty in a plea bargain.
Joe Mendy, from Camden Town, was just 18 when he was arrested in the Canary Island beach resort of Fuerteventura for possessing £100 in counterfeit notes. He has always protested his innocence.
In August, he was extradited to Spain to be tried, but after he was refused bail the courts closed for a summer break, which forced him to wait a month for them to reopen. As part of a deal made with the Spanish authorities, he pleaded guilty on Friday – and was released later that day with a £400 fine and a criminal record.
Mr Mendy said he had been warned that if he refused to plead guilty he could have spent up to a year in jail waiting for a trial.
Back home this week, with his parents in Leybourne Street, Mr Mendy said: “I’m glad it’s over. I am angry but at the same time I cannot afford to be stubborn. I wasn’t prepared to sit there for a year.”
He claimed he met prisoners who had yet to see a judge after waiting two years. “The system over there is a very slow process,” he said.
Mr Mendy, now 22, had been studying in Liverpool when the police knocked on his door four months ago to issue him with an arrest warrant.
He said he could not understand why thousands of pounds had been spent by the Spanish authorities bringing the case over what he regards as a petty issue. “I still think it’s a bit crazy they spent all that money getting me over there and putting me in prison,” he said. “It’s pathetic – it’s not a big crime, but I guess they got their conviction. I don’t think people should be extradited for petty stuff like this. The law wasn’t meant for that. It should be changed.”
Since his guilty plea, his solicitors, Bindman and Partners, have advised him not to re-assert his innocence.
His family are furious that Mr Mendy was extradited in the first place.
His sister, Carla Mendy, said: “I don’t think our government offers our citizens enough protection.”
The sticking point for his family is the extradition treaty – although it is signed by every EU country, some have added clauses which exempts certain cases from being heard abroad. Britain has no such clause.
In a letter to Foreign Secretary David Miliband, the MP for Holborn and St Pancras Frank Dobson called Mr Mendy’s extradition “a preposterous disproportionate use of the new extradition procedure”.
Mr Mendy’s mother, Kay, said: “It’s brilliant he’s home. It’s such a relief.”
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