The High Court has ordered Mark Andrew Adams surrendered to the United Kingdom to serve a 10-month prison sentence imposed in Northern Ireland for two criminal property offences. The order was made under section 16(1) of the European Arrest Warrant Act 2003, as amended.
Mr Justice David Keane delivered judgment on 12 July 2024. He found that the full 10-month custodial term remained to be served. The sentence, imposed by the Crown Court in Northern Ireland on 5 May 2022, is followed by 10 months on licence.
Adams had been temporarily surrendered to Northern Ireland in August 2021 to face the charges, after being sentenced in Ireland to five years’ imprisonment for money-laundering offences. He pleaded guilty to both Northern Ireland charges in January 2022 and was sentenced in May. He was returned to Ireland in June 2022 to continue serving his Irish sentence. The judgment records that time spent in custody in Northern Ireland was to be deducted from his Irish sentence; the judge saw no reason to doubt that the Northern Ireland custodial term remained outstanding.
Adams argued that wording in the surrender warrant created uncertainty about when his Northern Ireland sentence would begin and made the application an abuse of process. The judge rejected the objection. He said the warrant’s narrative about the sentence being consecutive and due after the Irish sentence did not determine the sentence’s operative start date. That was for the Northern Ireland committal warrant or equivalent document. No evidence about that document, or that it was ambiguous, had been presented.
The judge also rejected Adams’ objection that the offences did not correspond to offences under Irish law. He concluded that the conduct described in the warrant could amount to possession or attempted removal of criminal proceeds, and handling criminal proceeds, under Irish legislation.
Adams further argued that he faced a real risk of threats or ill-treatment in prison in Northern Ireland, including because of his health. He relied on his account of threats during earlier imprisonment and reports about prison violence and healthcare. The judge said the evidence did not establish substantial or reasonable grounds to believe Adams would face a real risk of treatment contrary to Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The court noted that his evidence described threats but no physical assault, and that he had provided limited information and supporting evidence about his health.
Having found the statutory requirements for surrender were met, the court directed that Adams be surrendered to a person authorised by the United Kingdom to receive him.