A man who has almost completed a term of imprisonment for burglary at a south Dublin hotel is to be extradited to France on document forgery and theft charges, the High Court has ordered.
There had been a dispute over the man's true identity but Mr Justice Michael Peart said yesterday he was satisfied, from expert fingerprint evidence, that the man was the person sought in the European Arrest Warrant, Juan Carlos Guzman Betancourt, the son of Colombian diplomats.
The man had denied being Mr Betancourt. He had claimed to be the orphan son of gypsies and that he had escaped from a Spanish orphanage at the age of 10.
Betancourt is serving a two-year sentence in the Republic for burglary at Dublin's Merrion Hotel and using a stolen credit card to buy luxury items at city centre jewellers.
He is due to be freed from custody in the next few days and then faces extradition to France where he will serve out a sentence handed down in his absence for document forgery. He is entitled to appeal against the extradition order to the Supreme Court.
Gardaí had told the extradition hearing they believed the man to be Betancourt (30) from Colombia, but claiming to be Alejandro Cuenca (25) from Spain. He had pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in March to entering a suite in the Merrion Hotel and stealing a ruby ring, a passport, a wallet containing credit cards, $3,500 (€2,655) in cash and €250 in cash on June 16th, 2005. He also pleaded guilty to using a stolen credit card to buy a Rolex watch, a gold chain and a wedding ring.
In his absence, he was convicted in France of forgery of administrative documents and sentenced to three years' imprisonment. If extradited, he will serve two years as he was in custody for a year before his trial. The French offences also relate to entry into rooms in a number of hotels in Paris and stealing property.
Mr Justice Peart said he was satisfied Betancourt was the person sought in the European arrest warrant. "He is quite clearly a person who travels freely and easily between jurisdictions and within jurisdictions under a number of flags of convenience. He has no difficulty assuming a variety of names as required," the judge said.
Given the nature of the offences for which Betancourt has been convicted already, it was safe to presume he was capable of changing his identity and availing of forged passports and other forms of identification to disguise his identity and travel around Europe, he said.
It was not surprising Betancourt had attempted in this case to put up a "sort of smoke screen" in order to try and cast doubt on his identity, the judge added. However, the judge said he had no doubt about the identity issue and held that the fingerprints of the man before the court were those of the man whose surrender was sought by the French authorities.