The High Court ordered the surrender of Pavol Pozgay to Slovakia under a European arrest warrant concerning the alleged theft of two vehicle licence plates. In a separate warrant, the court found that surrender was not barred after the issuing authority clarified that 12 alleged fuel theft incidents formed two charges.
Mr Justice Binchy delivered the judgment on 15 January 2020. The case concerned two prosecution warrants issued by Slovak judicial authorities and endorsed by the High Court in July 2018.
The first warrant described 12 alleged incidents between 16 March and 29 May 2013 in which the respondent was said to have taken fuel from filling stations without paying. It stated that surrender was sought for two offences, but the court said the documentation could also be read as involving 12 separate charges, with different potential penalties.
The court requested clarification from the issuing authority. Its reply, received on 27 November 2019, said the respondent faced charges for two theft offences covering all 12 incidents. It also confirmed he would not face a separate charge based on having been punished for similar conduct within the previous 12 months. The judge held that this removed uncertainty about the number of charges. He found that the alleged conduct corresponded to making off without payment under Irish law and met the minimum gravity requirement. No arguments requiring refusal under the relevant statutory provisions were made, and other objections to that warrant were not pursued at the hearing.
The second warrant sought surrender to prosecute an allegation that, on an unascertained day in May 2013, the respondent stole two licence plates from a Ford Focus parked at a Catholic church in Sedliacka Dubová. The respondent objected that the offence had no Irish equivalent and said he was not in Slovakia at the relevant time. The judge rejected the latter objection because the respondent had not sworn an affidavit verifying his absence. He also rejected the argument that the offence date was too imprecise, noting that the warrant gave the alleged hours as 8pm to 10pm.
The judge found that the licence-plate allegation corresponded to theft under Irish law and met the minimum gravity threshold. He concluded that surrender under the second warrant was not prohibited by the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003 and ordered surrender under section 16(1). The judgment does not state that a surrender order was made under the first warrant.