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Do you have a criminal record


frede

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I know this should be a simple YES/NO answer, but in true Mekong fashion nothing is so simple. As some of you may be aware, I am originaly from Salford Northern England but with strong family ties to the Isle of Man (my mum sailed to the Island a few days before my entrance into this life so I was born there. I still have a lot of family there and spent most of my freetime there up until my nid twenties .

The Isle of Man is a Crown Dependancy and therefore is still a law unto itself. Current population is now only 80,000, when I was there it was more like 65.000. Since there are so few people in a limited space opportunites were abound and nepatism was rife, and still are.

 

I still have the charge of "Piracy" hanging over my head from over 20 years ago, or to be more precise I was charge under UNCLOS United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea 1982,

 

(a) any illegal acts of violence or detention, or any act of depredation, committed for private ends by the crew or the passengers of a private ship or a private aircraft, and directed:

 

(i) on the high seas, against another ship or aircraft, or against persons or property on board such ship or aircraft;

(ii) against a ship, aircraft, persons or property in a place outside the jurisdiction of any State;

 

(B) any act of voluntary participation in the operation of a ship or of an aircraft with knowledge of facts making it a pirate ship or aircraft;

© any act of inciting or of intentionally facilitating an act described in subparagraph (a) or (B).

 

The family fishing boat sunk 25 Nautical miles from landfall, just outside territorial waters and just in the Exclusive Ecconomic Zone (Breakpoint)

 

Without saying to much to implicate myself, in legalese terms "I was susspected of being Concerned in the Production Of Class B Narcotics" basicaly smuggling (weed if you must know whic is now a Class C) I was within the EEZ when the coastguards approached and requested to board the vessel. With the draconian manx law I knew I had between 15-20 years inside on the trawler, and there were also cousins and an uncle on it so we made the pre-arrange decision to scuttle her knowing damn well the coastguards would rescue us and the evidence sinks to the bottom.

 

The coastguards did rescue us but upon hitting dry land my Uncle and I were arrested under UNCLOS, those bastards really wanted us. To cut a long story short, I felt we were being held unfairly and the Island lawyers were in cohouts with the police to hold us as long as they could without cause to do so. On weekly bail hearings I complained of such to the Deemster and was eventualy allowed access to legal papers upon which to base my own defense.

 

It took 18 Months to bring our detention up to the court of appeal in the UK amd have an independant hearing with 3 appeal court judges from the mainland and once the evidence was given we were set free. The Manx Judicial system wanted this to be recorded as an "Open Case" on my record, something I contested intensely, we agreed it is Open under manx law but non applicable on the mainland.

 

I was as guilty as hell I admit that, easy money at 23 years of age we were all young and greedy once, but it taught me a bloody lesson. 18 months banged up in Island Goal thet is 200 years behind times made the first few trips to Saudi seem like a walk in the park, I have since gone on to study law more once I gained my freedom which has allowed me to follow the path I now follow.

 

Back to the OP

 

YES on a Crown Dependancy, but NO in the real world!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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