AC-2024-LON-002673 - [2025] EWHC 2932 (Admin)

The Respondent seeks the extradition of the Appellant pursuant to an arrest warrant issued by the Respondent on 22 January 2024. The warrant was certified by the National Crime Agency on 2 March 2024.

The warrant is a conviction warrant. The Appellant was convicted of stealing cash and goods to a total sum of 18,930CZK (approximately £602.81) on 14 November 2016. The two offences at Box E of the warrant are theft and unauthorised arrangement, forgery and alteration of a means of payment. The Appellant was sentenced on 23 March 2017 to 16 months’ imprisonment in a high security prison, which was originally a conditionally suspended sentence. Due to the Appellant’s failure to comply with the conditions on which the sentence was suspended, the sentence was activated at a hearing on 14 September 2017. The whole of the term of 16 months’ imprisonment is yet to be served.

The Appellant was born on 24 June 1988 in the Czech Republic. He lived in a children’s home in the city of Most until he was 20 years old. After he left the children’s home, his uncle and his sister (to whom he is close) provided him with support, including somewhere to live, although for a time he lived on the streets.

Prior to the conviction which is the subject of the arrest warrant, the Appellant had three previous convictions for theft. In his statement, he said those offences were committed when he was in his 20s, after he had left the children’s home. Custodial sentences were imposed and he served approximately 3 years in custody, in total.

The Appellant pleaded not guilty to the offences committed on 14 November 2016. He was tried and, having been found guilty, sentenced on the same day. The Appellant attended the trial and sentencing hearing.

Following the imposition of the suspended sentence, in 2017, the Appellant came to the UK. He failed to comply with the probation requirements.

The Appellant met his partner, Simona Vlckova, in 2015. Their son, David, was born in the Czech Republic. He was 7 years old at the time of the extradition hearing. Shortly after the Appellant moved to the UK, Ms Vlckova and their son joined him.

Ms Vlckova has two daughters, Alexandra and Michaela, who were 12 and 16 years old, respectively, at the time of the extradition hearing. The Appellant’s stepdaughters had been living in the UK with their grandmother before the Appellant or their mother came to the UK. From 2017 until 2021, the Appellant, Ms Vlckova and their son lived with her mother and her daughters. From 2021 the Appellant, Ms Vlckova and their son moved to a separate home where they lived together. The Appellant’s stepdaughters continued to live with their grandmother.

At the extradition hearing, the Appellant said that his stepdaughters regard him as their father, as they have never met their biological father. He said that while Ms Vlckova works part-time, he supports the family financially. Until he lost his job following his arrest and release on bail, he had been working for two years in a factory. Ms Vlckova said that if the Appellant were extradited it would be particularly hard for her son, with whom he has a “very strong bond”, and “who is very dependent on him”. Ms Vlckova said that without the Appellant’s financial contribution, she and her son would have to move in with her mother. She said that would be an immense burden on her mother as she already had her own mother, as well as her two granddaughters, living with her.