The Supreme Court has upheld the surrender of a Romanian husband and wife who had been living in Ireland since 2000 to serve 12-year prison sentences imposed in Romania for fraud-related offences.
Florin Gheorghe and Violeta Corina Gheorghe appealed High Court orders directing their surrender to Romanian judicial authorities under the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003. Both had been convicted in their absence in 2005 of offences translated as swindling concerning contracts. Violeta Gheorghe was also convicted of aggravated forgery of administrative documents, but the sentences were merged into a longest term of 12 years.
The allegations concerned property transactions in Bucharest between August 1999 and March 2000, involving allegedly fraudulent court proceedings, false documents and the sale of property belonging to others.
The couple left Romania for the United Kingdom in August 2000 after obtaining visitor visas by falsely stating that they intended to return. They subsequently travelled to Ireland and applied for refugee status. They later argued that they had not fled Romania because they were unaware of any criminal investigation.
Mr Justice Fennelly rejected that argument. Information supplied by Romanian authorities included statements said to have been made during questioning before the couple left. Violeta Gheorghe accepted that she had attended the prosecutor's office, while Florin Gheorghe denied making the statement attributed to him. The court held that the High Court had been entitled to find that they fled Romania.
The Supreme Court also considered their convictions in absentia. It found insufficient evidence that either had personally received notice of the time and place of trial. However, Romania supplied a written undertaking guaranteeing that, following surrender and on request, they would be retried and allowed to attend. The court held that this satisfied the 2003 Act.
Their final argument, that surrender would disproportionately disrupt their family life in Ireland, was also rejected. The appeals were dismissed and the High Court surrender orders affirmed.