The High Court has refused to surrender Radosław Szefer to Poland to serve a 212-day prison term arising from a forged insurance certificate case linked to Cavan.
Polish authorities alleged that in May 2011 Szefer presented Quinn Insurance Limited at Dublin Road, Cavan, with a forged insurance certificate for a non-existent Volkswagen Golf. A Polish court later found him guilty and initially imposed one year and two months' restriction of liberty, involving unpaid supervised community service. In February 2019, that penalty was replaced with 212 days' imprisonment after authorities concluded he had avoided serving the community-based sentence.
The Minister for Justice sought Szefer's surrender under a European arrest warrant issued in August 2020.
Szefer objected on the basis that he had not attended the proceedings which led to the sentence. Polish authorities had sent court documents to an address he supplied during questioning in 2012. The documents were deemed served under Polish law after they went uncollected.
Mr Justice Burns accepted that Szefer had signed a notice in 2012 requiring him to tell prosecutors about changes of address. He had also been told that an investigation was suspended rather than terminated.
However, the court found important countervailing circumstances. The suspension notice suggested the delay would be about three to four months, but proceedings were not resumed for almost four years. During that period Szefer had informed Polish probation authorities in another case that he was living in Ireland and had returned to Poland to collect his passport.
The judge was not satisfied that Szefer deliberately put himself beyond the reach of Polish authorities or unequivocally waived his right to notice and participation.
Because the safeguards for proceedings conducted in a person's absence were not met either formally or substantively, the High Court held that his defence rights had not been adequately protected. Surrender was therefore refused without determining his remaining objections.