Man convicted of assault was living under a stolen identity

A man who pushed his pregnant partner in the stomach later turned out to be living under a stolen identity and is wanted by French authorities so he can serve a five-year jail term for people-trafficking. Kristian Krasznai appeared before Bandon District Court on a guilty plea to both the altercation near a supermarket with his ex-partner, and the theft of a mobile phone from Aldi.

However, Sgt Brian Harte said that since those incidents in 2017, gardaí had learned that Mr Krasznai had been living in Ireland using the stolen identity and documents of another Hungarian national, Sandor Jonas. Mr Krasznai, aged 38, had been living at Apartment 2, Meadowlands, Bandon, Co Cork. He also had an address at 4R Parnell St, Bandon.

Under his real name, he is wanted in France, with authorities there seeking his extradition to serve a sentence for people-trafficking. Judge James McNulty heard that on September 1, 2017, a woman who had been trying on clothes in Aldi in Bandon put down her iPhone 6S while doing so and left it behind. She reported it to gardaí who then reviewed CCTV footage from the store.

In it, two males could be seen taking the phone, one of whom was Krasznai. The phone had been sold to a phone shop but was recovered and returned.

Krasznai admitted his role in the theft and the court also heard he was pleading guilty to the assault on his then partner on May 24, 2017, near Aldi in Bandon. The court heard the woman was pregnant with his child at the time, and that in the course of an argument, he pushed her in the stomach in front of witnesses.

He later denied pushing the woman, and his solicitor said while Krasznai admitted that there had been a verbal altercation and the woman would have been in fear, he said he had not pushed her. He claimed the argument was because the woman had said she wanted to terminate the pregnancy.

According to Sgt Harte: “Mr Krasznai at the time of the incidents, he was living in Bandon under the name Sandor Jonas.

“It subsequently transpired he had stolen the ID of another Hungarian individual, and had come to Ireland under that assumed identity. It now transpires that Mr Krasznai is wanted in France on a European arrest warrant.”

He said there was a five-year sentence awaiting him in France for people trafficking. The court heard Krasznai is on remand and due to appear in the High Court in relation to that European arrest warrant on June 27.

Sgt Harte said Krasznai had no previous convictions in this country but had a “colourful history” in Hungary, where he had a certain notoriety. His solicitor, Plunkett Taaffe, said Krasznai faces bigger difficulties and was pleading guilty to the two charges before the court which, he said, “were of some vintage”.

“He has major difficulties to deal with,” Mr Taaffe said. Judge McNulty said: “I am sure he will get a fair trial.”

For the theft of the iPhone, the judge sentenced Krasznai to five months in prison and handed down a similar sentence for the assault. Recognisance for any appeal was set at Krasznai’s own bond of €100 and an independent surety of €3,000, one-third of that to be in cash.