Four months jail term after immigration offences detected at Belfast International Airport
A man who committed immigration offences at Belfast International Airport has been jailed for four months.
Eren Palfy (34), of no fixed abode, appeared at Antrim Magistrates Court. sitting in Ballymena, via video link from prison where he had been on remand.
He pleaded guilty to illegal entry to the UK on January 11 this year in breach of a Deportation Order and a charge that he had in his possession an identification document which related to somebody else. He had the assistance of an interpreter at court.
A prosecutor said the defendant was spoken to by immigration officers at Belfast International Airport where he attempted to get a flight to London.
When asked for ID he produced a Hungarian passport in the name of another male. The biometric picture in the passport was not the defendant.
The defendant's belongings were searched and an Albanian identity card and passport in his own name were discovered.
Further checks showed the defendant also had an "alias" in another name and that he had been deported from the UK in 2018.
District Judge Nigel Broderick said: "I presume that is why he didn't use his proper passport at the airport. He used a false one to (attempt to) get past the Deportation Order."
The defendant said he had travelled from Spain to Dublin before making his way to Belfast.
Judge Broderick said the immigration regulations were "important" and jailed the defendant for four months.