Lithuanian criminal who ‘lived it up’ at Rosspark Hotel is set to be deported, court hears

Renatas Bizys (51), with an address listed as ‘no fixed abode’ in Belfast, pleaded guilty to making off without payment at Rosspark Hotel near Ballymena in April this year.

There was a co-accused, who was previously dealt with at court, and they had ran up a bill of £1,193.

A prosecutor previously told Ballymena Magistrates’ Court on Thursday (July 14) that two men had been staying at the hotel from April 15 and on April 21 police were called to the Rosspark after an attempt was made to leave without paying.

The prosecutor said the men said they were on a “business trip” and had not realised a payment card had been declined but hotel staff “would dispute that and say that they had been informed of that payment being declined and then they had tried to leave the hotel via a strange route, really to avoid the reception area of the hotel”.

However, they were “confronted” by staff and police were called.

A defence solicitor said “family members” of Bizys have now paid off the debt to the hotel.

She said the defendant had spent a number of months in prison on remand in connection with the case.

The lawyer said prosecutors said the defendant had “entered Northern Ireland illegally and that on his release from prison he will be deported”.

The court was told the defendant had a previous 10 months suspended prison sentence for the theft of ink cartridges worth over £700 in the Belfast area earlier this year.

A prosecutor said Bizys had been denied entry to UK in February “due to his involvement in crime”.

She said Bizys told police he had been contacted in Denmark by a “potential employer who promised him work as a driver in Northern Ireland”.

The prosecutor said Bizys had claimed he believed the employer was paying for the hotel and said the defendant was unable to provide details of the ‘company’ and police were unable to contact them.

Through a Lithuanian language interpreter, the defendant claimed in court: “We were mislead”.

The defence lawyer said Bizys made the case they came to Northern Ireland at the arrangement of a “third party” and when a card payment had been declined the men had “panicked”.

Following the ink cartridge thefts in January, the defendant had left Northern Ireland, the defence solicitor said, before returning.

The lawyer urged the judge not to activate a 10 months suspended prison term in connection with the printer ink as with the deportation looming the longer he was in jail the more it would cost the taxpayer.

District Judge Anne Marshall said the defendant “seems to have been living it up in this hotel”.

She added there was reference to “multiple pints of Carlsberg, steaks”.

The defence solicitor said the men “effectively had their dinner, a pint of beer and a chicken sandwich”.

Judge Marshall handed down a six months prison term for the Rosspark offence.

She said she was not activating the suspended sentence which remains operational, and said the non-activation of the 10 months term was on the basis “that he is likely to be deported and it would cost a great amount to keep him in our prison system for another 10 months”.