The High Court has ordered Johnathan James Ayton’s surrender to a person authorised by the United Kingdom to receive him, in relation to seven offences listed in a European arrest warrant. The order was made under section 16 of the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003, as amended. The court made no order for five other offences, for which fines and driving disqualifications had been imposed.
Mr Justice Eagar delivered judgment on 10 March 2015 after hearings on 12 and 20 February. Mr Ayton did not consent to surrender. The court said its power to order surrender depended on finding that the statutory requirements were met. His identity was not disputed, and the court found that the warrant was properly endorsed and executed and was in the correct form. It also noted there was no suggestion he had been tried in his absence.
The warrant related to convictions in Northern Ireland. The seven offences covered possession of a car obtained in the Republic of Ireland, dangerous driving, two child abduction offences, use of a vehicle taken without the owner’s consent, and criminal damage to funeral flowers and a security tag. The judgment records that the underlying offences dated from September and October 2010.
The court considered whether the offences had corresponding offences under Irish law. It found correspondence for possession of stolen property, dangerous driving, child abduction, use of a vehicle taken without consent, and criminal damage. It concluded that the correspondence requirement in section 38 was met.
A separate dispute concerned the sentence still to be served. The warrant described a total sentence of 12 months in custody followed by 18 months on licence. Mr Ayton had been released on licence in June 2013, which was revoked in September 2013. The judgment records that prosecutors later decided not to prosecute him over separate motoring offences said to have led to the recall. His counsel argued, among other points, that the remaining licence period did not satisfy the statutory minimum-gravity test and raised the need to deduct time spent in custody in Ireland. The Minister’s counsel argued the sentence should be considered as a whole and that any deduction was for the issuing state after surrender.
The judge held that the sentence, comprising imprisonment and a licence period, met the minimum-gravity requirement. He also found that the sentence was not unlawful under the European Convention on Human Rights or the Constitution. The resulting order covered warrant offences 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 11. No order was made for offences 3, 4, 5, 10 and 12 because fines and driving disqualifications had been imposed for those offences.