AC-2023-LON-001921 - [2025] EWHC 1416 (Admin)

The Appellant is aged 27. He is a dual-national of Moldova and Romania, born in Moldova. He is wanted for extradition to France in conjunction with an Extradition Arrest Warrant (“ExAW”) issued on 16 July 2022. It replaced an earlier ExAW issued on 16 March 2022. The offences with which extradition is concerned are 7 thefts which took place in August 2020. They involved hacking into bank ATMs, as a member of an organised criminal group. The banks lost €40,000. The Appellant was sentenced on 18 February 2022 to 20 month imprisonment. Subject to the issue about Qualifying Curfew under French law, the 20 month sentence remains to be served in full. The Appellant’s arrest in conjunction with his extradition was on 16 April 2022. His extradition is governed by the Extradition Act 2003 and the Trade and Cooperation Agreement 2020 (“TCA”).

Since 16 April 2022, the Appellant has been on bail with a 5 hour EMC, to be at his home each night between 11pm to 4am, together with reporting requirements. These are the Appellant’s bail conditions: to live and sleep each night at his home address; to abide by an electronically monitored curfew between the hours of 11pm and 4am; to report every Saturday to Weston Favell Police Station between 3pm and 5pm; that identity documents be retained by the police; not to apply for, or be in possession of, any international travel documents; not to attend any international travel hub; not to leave the jurisdiction of England & Wales; pre-release security of £5,000 to be paid to the court; and that a mobile telephone (number given) to be kept fully charged and switched on 24 hours a day. That 5hr EMC has now been in place for 3y 2m. On 16 February 2024 the point in time was reached that it had been in place for the 20m to which the Appellant was sentenced by the French court.

Extradition was ordered by DJ Pilling (“the Judge”) on 16 June 2023. That was after an oral hearing on 26 May 2023 at which the Appellant, his then partner, and his father all gave oral evidence. The Judge found the following as facts. The Appellant has been living in the UK since coming here in 2016 (aged 18). His parents and brother have been here since 2018. He had a partner; but they had no children. The Appellant was not a fugitive. He had no other convictions in any country.

At the date of the hearing before the Judge (16 June 2023) the Appellant’s EMC had run for 14 months. The case of A had been decided in December 2022. The Qualifying Curfew point did not feature at all before the Judge. Nor did it feature in the Perfected Grounds of Appeal to this Court on 5 July 2023. That is unsurprising, given that the sentence is 20m. A number of other grounds of resistance to extradition were raised before the Judge and in the Perfected Grounds of Appeal. They included abuse of process (given the existence of previous ExAWs) and Article 8 (give the impact and implications of extradition for private and family life). The Judge rejected all of the arguments raised on the Appellant’s behalf. She found no Article 8 disproportionality; and no abuse of process.

Permission to appeal was refused on the papers by Julian Knowles J on 30 April 2024. It was only after that point, in the grounds for the renewed application for permission to appeal (dated 6 May 2024) that the Appellant’s lawyers first raised the EMC as a basis for resisting extradition, whether viewed as Article 8 disproportionality or an abuse of process. Since the EMC had by now (since 16 February 2024) run for more than 20m, they were able to argue – based on A and Doga – that the Appellant should be discharged. In light of that viable argument, permission to appeal was granted by Murray J at an oral hearing on 17 October 2024.