Moto2, Sito Pons escapes a 24-year prison sentence and 12 million fine

The Barcelona High Court has acquitted former motorcycling world champion Alfonso Sito Pons of the six offences against the tax authorities for which the prosecution was seeking a 24-year prison sentence for failing to pay taxes in Spain between 2010 and 2014, Marca reports.

In its ruling, the eighth section of the Court of Appeal shows that during those four years Pons, 250 cc world champion in 1988 and 1989, spent more than 200 days travelling to motorbike circuits around the world and his tax residence was in Monaco between 2010 and 2012, and from 2013 to 2014 in the UK.

The prosecution had asked for Pons, who was defended by the law firm Molins Criminal Defence and tax lawyer Iñaki Picaza, to be sentenced to 24 years in prison and more than €12 million in fines for six tax fraud offences, a charge joined by both the Spanish and Catalan tax authorities.