Man who came to Ireland as a stowaway 20 years ago avoids jail 

Solicitor says client had previous convictions from just after he first arrived here in a container, but they were when he was destitute and desperate

Kyrgyzstan used a a fake Lithuanian passport to live here for two decades.

A man from Kyrgyzstan who lived in Ireland under a false identity after coming to the country in a container as a stowaway 20 years ago has avoided a jail sentence.

Leonti Belikov, 50, with an address at 37 An Bruach, Ballinhassig, Co Cork, paid a fine of €3,000 to Bandon District Court.

Judge James McNulty noted that Belikov had been unlawfully in the State and living under a false name for 20 years.

He said Belikov only had himself to blame that he had been held in custody since his arrest on November 12.

Even after he had been arrested, he continued to assume his fake identity, Judge McNulty said.

Defence solicitor Plunkett Taaffe said his client did supply the correct information following his arrest but it then took some time for the State to verify it.

Judge McNulty fined Belikov €1,000 for being in the State without the consent of the Minister. He fined him another €1,000 for using a fake Lithuanian passport with the intention of inducing another person to accept it as genuine. And he fined him another €1,000 for failing to provide gardaí with proof of identity. Lesser charges, including using a fake Lithuanian driving licence, were taken into consideration.

A disposal order for the fake passport, fake driving licence and other false documents was granted to gardaí.

“The court will not impose a prison sentence,” Judge McNulty said.

He has spent the last four-and-a-half to five weeks in prison.

Mr Taaffe said that Belikov now had to apply for leave to remain in Ireland and asked if the case could be appealed so that historic previous convictions may not be taken into account in that process.

Although his client had some previous convictions, they were from around the time he first arrived in Ireland, when he was destitute and desperate. Since that time, he has never been in any trouble, Mr Taaffe said.

“This man came to the country in extreme difficulty. They are old charges,” he said.

But Judge McNulty said that an appeal would be a “legal fiction”.

Judge McNulty said that to avoid disclosing his previous convictions because a case was under appeal would “perpetuate a misleading fiction".

“It is better that the whole truth be told in his application to remain, Judge McNulty said.

“There is a lot to be said for coming clean, telling it as it is and not going down the road of fiction. He’s come in here and pleaded guilty and asked for leniency.

It’s been dealt with by way of fines only. I’m not going to have a fictional appeal only intended to muddy the waters and draw a veil over the application.

Belikov, who appeared in court in a full suit and tie, had pleaded guilty before Bandon District Court on five charges earlier this week.

They are that on November 11 last he failed to produce a valid passport at Bandon Garda Station in breach of the Immigration Act, that he was remaining in the State without permission of the minister, two charges that he had a Lithuanian driver's licence which gardaí believe is not legitimate, and that he had a Lithuanian passport which he knew to be false.

An alarm was raised 20 years after he entered the country when Belikov made an online application to Bank of Ireland in Ballincollig on November 4 last year under the name of Alex Radanov. 

The application included supporting documents, among them an AIB statement and a Lithuanian passport, all with the Radanov name.

However, the application was rejected and the bank complained to gardaí in June of this year.

Interpol assisted with the subsequent investigation.

At the last hearing, Mr Taaffe said his client had come to Ireland in a container in 2001 and had lied to establish residency here. He first applied for asylum before discontinuing that process.