Jail for hotel safe burglar

A foreign national whose identity remains uncertain has been jailed for two years for burglary at a top Dublin hotel and use of a stolen credit card to buy luxury items at city centre jewellers.

The man had escaped from a UK prison where he was serving a sentence for similar crimes just 10 days before committing the offences in Dublin. Gardaí were assisted by reports in UK newspapers in apprehending the individual, who may also be wanted in France and America.

Judge Katherine Delahunt back-dated the two-year sentence to June 2005, when he entered custody in Ireland. She said he was "clearly a man who likes the finer things in life but might not be prepared to pay for them in the normal way". She also said it was clear that he was not a criminal mastermind.

Beatencroft’s extradition to the UK to serve the remainder of a three-and-a-half-year sentence, of which he had served eight weeks before absconding, may be sought upon the termination of his sentence in Ireland.

The defendant, known to Interpol as Juan Carlos Guzman Beatencoft (aged 29) from Columbia but claiming to be Alejandro Cuenca (aged 25) from Spain, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to entering a suite in the Merrion Hotel as a trespasser, and stealing a ruby ring, a passport, a wallet containing credit cards, US$3,500 cash and €250 cash on June 16, 2005.

He also pleaded guilty to using a stolen credit card in the name of Ms Robin Westbrook, to buy a Rolex watch, a nine-carat gold chain and 18-carat wedding ring at jewellers on Grafton Street and O'Connell Street on the same date.

Detective garda Brian McGlinn told Mr Paul Greene BL, prosecuting, that Beatencroft gained access to a three-bedroom suite on the third floor of the Merrion Hotel, Merrion Square, where guests from Beverly Hills, California were staying.

Beatencroft first approached a cleaner and claimed he was unable to get into his room. The lady refused to let him in and told him to go to reception. CCTV footage of the corridor showed him making a telephone call on an internal hotel phone and making notes. He then went to reception where he got a swipe key card for the suite.

Det garda McGlinn said the thief went into the suite and asked the cleaning lady to leave. He then made a complaint that the children staying in the suite had been playing with the safe prompting the hotel’s head of security to go to the suite and open the safe.

Beatencroft then took cash, jewellery, credit cards and a passport from the safe, resealed it and left the hotel.

He went to Weir’s Jewellers on Grafton street where he used a stolen American Express to buy a Rolex watch worth €16,055 and then to John Brereton’s Jewellers on O’Connell Street where he bought a necklace worth €600 and a man’s wedding ring worth €350. He also used the credit card to buy CDs and DVDs from HMV and clothes from Brown Thomas.

The American guests at the Merrion hotel discovered that items were missing from the safe the following morning as they were checking out and contacted gardaí.

Gardaí became aware of articles in The London Times and Guardian newspapers which reported the escape of a man from an open prison in the UK who had committed similar crimes at a luxury hotel using the same modus operandi. These articles carried a photograph which witnesses in Dublin identified as the man who was in the Merrion and had later gone jewellery shopping.

Beatencroft was detained on immigration offences a week after the burglary and was then arrested in relation to the theft. He was wearing the Rolex watch and had with him many of the stolen items.

Det garda McGlinn said the US passport of Mr Hugh Hudson had been professionally altered to carry the defendant’s photograph.

Beatencroft told gardaí that he was Alejandro Cuenca from Cadiz, Spain, had flown into Ireland from Madrid four weeks earlier and had been staying in various hostels in Dublin. He admitted committing theft and obtaining goods falsely in Dublin but denied that he was Beatencroft.

Det garda McGlinn agreed with Mr Greene that the defendant had up to 15 aliases in a number of jurisdictions and that he had given English police another Spanish name - Gonzalo Vivez.

Det garda McGlinn said that gardaí believe him to be Juan Carlos Guzman Beatencoft, born to former Columbian diplomats in Columbia in June 1976 and that request had been made to gardaí in relation to the man by extradition officials in France and Las Vegas.

Defence counsel, Mr Cormac Quinn BL, strongly objected to evidence of any extradition requests being opened to the court and told Judge Delahunt that his client alleges that a Las Vegas police officer rang him at Clover Hill prison and made "upsetting" threats.

Mr Quinn said that his client instructed him that he is 25-year-old Alejandro Cuenca from Spain and that he was finding conditions difficult in prison as a foreign national. He said the "aura the case had attracted in the media" had also caused his client difficulties.

Mr Quinn argued that Rolex watches were displayed in an "alluring" fashion in the jeweller’s shop on Grafton Street and that the defendant’s actions were "not consistent with a criminal mastermind".

A prison officer stood close behind Beatencroft as Judge Delahunt imposed sentence. She said that his early plea of guilty and the lack of violence in the offence were taken into consideration.