Ireland deports man to US over fraud

An American wanted in connection with a multimillion-dollar fraud has been deported from Ireland, where he fled ahead of being charged with multiple offences.

Scott Cavell, aged 29, convicted of drug offences in Ireland earlier this year, was put on a direct flight from Dublin to Chicago, then arrested as he stepped off the plane.

Prosecutors in Sacramento, the centre of operations for the alleged $100m (€75m) mortgage fraud, told a local newspaper they have no idea why he was deported.

In October, a Dublin court ordered him to be kicked out of the country after his appearance on drug charges — committed on the run after being given bail following his arrest on entirely separate ones.

US authorities had been reluctant to start extradition proceedings because of the Dublin High Court’s reputation for turning down requests from the US.

Federal prosecutor Benjamin Wagner told the Sacramento Bee newspaper of discussions with Irish authorities: “We suggested that if they just wanted to get rid of him, that would be great.”

It appears agencies in Ireland did not fully brief the Americans on the background to his deportation.

Mr Wagner added that there was no agreement between Ireland and the US on the federal prosecution ahead of the deportation.

Cavell, the last of four fugitive alleged fraudsters connected to the purported mortgage scam to be captured, fled to Ireland on a false passport just weeks before his indictment on charges of wire fraud, money laundering, and passport, and identity offences in early 2009.

Prosecutors in the US were sure Cavell was in Ireland but he remained under the radar until well after his Feb 2011 arrest for growing cannabis in his Dublin apartment on Castle St.

He was living under an assumed name, Marcus Dwyer, and had managed to acquire a false Irish passport. Cavell was processed through the courts under the name Dwyer. He was given bail and promptly went on the run again.

It was only months later that an alert garda, intrigued by his American accent, sent his fingerprints to Interpol, discovering his real identity.

At that year’s Electric Picnic music festival, he was arrested under the Dwyer name, in possession of ecstasy tablets. He was released to be summoned at a later date.

But it then took time to track him down ahead of his April trial on the cannabis growhouse charges.

Cavell was sentenced to four months in prison in April but has been in custody since.