Image from Simon Butler Skiing
A court in France has found British ski instructor, Simon Butler, guilty of teaching illegally. Butler has been sentenced to 200 days in jail or he has the option to pay a €30,000 fine instead.
Mr Butler and 6 other British instructors who worked for the company, Simon Butler Skiing, were arrested while teaching on the slopes of Megeve back in February. They were accused of teaching without the correct qualifications for teaching skiing in France.
Butler says he will go to jail rather than pay the fine. An appeal has been lodged.
“I did not expect it all to go my way today but to be sentenced to a jail term is ludicrous,” he said to PlanetSKI straight after the case.
“French justice does not exist at all and it is all down to local mountain politics. The judge even told me to go and work in Switzerland even though I still maintain I have all the correct qualifications,” he added.