The High Court has proposed ordering the surrender of Gheorge Bordea to Romania to serve a one-year prison sentence arising from a driving offence committed in 2019.
Romanian authorities sought Bordea under a European Arrest Warrant after he was convicted of driving without a licence. The warrant states that on October 14, 2019 he drove an Audi on public roads without holding a licence and caused a traffic accident involving property damage.
Bordea opposed surrender on two grounds. First, he said he had not known about the Romanian criminal proceedings or the hearings which ultimately resulted in his conviction and sentence. He denied receiving summonses and disputed documents said to record that he had been informed of his rights and obligations.
Mr Justice Patrick McGrath rejected much of Bordea’s evidence as lacking credibility or reliability. The judge accepted Romanian records showing that Bordea knew criminal proceedings had been initiated, had been told to notify authorities of any change of address and had instructed a state-appointed lawyer who represented him at first instance.
The court accepted that there was no direct evidence Bordea knew the date of the later appeal hearing or had expressly been told it could proceed without him. However, it found that he knew of his conviction, had instructed a lawyer who lodged an appeal and then showed a manifest lack of diligence in engaging with the appeal process.
From those circumstances, the judge inferred that Bordea understood the appeal could be determined in his absence. His defence rights had therefore been adequately protected.
Bordea also argued that surrender should fail because the corresponding Irish offence of driving without a licence does not carry an equivalent custodial sentence. The court rejected that argument. It held that Irish law requires correspondence between the underlying conduct, not equivalence between the penalties available in each country.
Both objections were dismissed and the judge proposed making an order surrendering Bordea to Romania.