A convicted money launderer’s appeal against the length of his sentence has been rejected.

Elton Edwin Sheldon, 60, of Ballachrink Drive, Onchan, was found guilty by a jury in November 2018 of four counts under the Proceeds of Crime Act and one of demanding property on forged documents.

He was sentenced to three years and two months in prison.

Sheldon launched an appeal against the length of the sentence but Judge of Appeal Jeremy Storey QC and Deemster Alastair Montgomerie ruled: ’Although we think that the Deemster got the balance slightly wrong, we cannot interfere with a sentence of three years and two months’ custody.

’It was not manifestly excessive.’

Sheldon was due for release on Friday (June 5).

At his appeal hearing, Sheldon said the length of the jail sentence had been determined by the value of the money laundering at the time of sentencing and not when the offences were committed.

He said it should have been determined on the figure of £230,000 and not £267,521.

He believed his sentence should have been in the range of 28 to 32 months, as opposed to 38 months.

In addition, he said deductions to the sentence should have been on the available mitigation, including his age and good character and the 15 months he had spent on bail, subject to a curfew, doorstep condition and twice-daily sign-on.

Sheldon launched his appeal 14 months after his conviction. Ordinarily, convicted offenders are given just 28 days to appeal after sentence.

Sheldon said he had been seeking legal representation but had been unable to do so and was ’compelled to represent himself’.

In their judgment, Judge of Appeal Storey QC and Deemster Montgomerie said determining the sentence based on the lower figure ’would have made no material difference’.

On the issue of deductions, they said: ’As for mitigation, there was clearly a lack of remorse.’ But they said that the bail conditions were the ’Isle of Man’s equivalent to electric tagging and was therefore entitled to rely upon this for some small credit’.

They added: ’This court does not alter a sentence which is the subject of an appeal merely because the members of the court might have passed a different sentence.’

The jury at Mr Sheldon’s trial heard he was involved with a network that attempted to launder the proceeds of an elaborate fraud in France.

Other criminals had stolen Euro 1m from industrial equipment supplier Testo when its IT system was compromised with spyware.

A single transaction of Euro 301,752 of that fraud was transferred on January 20, 2016 from Testo’s bank account to a personal bank account opened by Sheldon at Barclays Isle of Man some months before.

At the sentencing, Deemster Kainth said he was ’probably not a leading figure’ but was part of the fraud and jailed him for what was the ’minimum sentence I can impose’.