A man alleged to have sold Irish passports in the names of children who had died in infancy is to challenge the validity of an arrest warrant for his extradition to England.
Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan yesterday rejected two arguments why Michael Fallon should not be sent back to England to face a charge of conspiracy to defraud the UK Passport Agency by the provision of false passport applications.
But she held the High Court here was bound to hold an inquiry into the validity of a European Arrest Warrant issued by Bow Street magistrates in London, and set the hearing for October 4th.
Kieran Kelly, counsel for Mr Fallon, otherwise Micheál Ó Falluin, formerly of Carysfort Hall, Blackrock, Co Dublin, had opposed the granting of the extradition application on the grounds of delay and that the warrant was "void and unlawful". The court had earlier heard that British police believed Mr Fallon (50) and alleged co-conspirators advertised passports for sale in the International Herald Tribune.
British police claimed that once a customer made contact they were offered a choice of suitable names and dates of birth from a list. On provision of a passport photograph and a signed blank passport application form, these were accompanied by a duplicate birth certificate of a child who had died in infancy and who had never held a passport.
The court was told that the scam had been exposed by the Granada television investigative journalism show Tonight with Trevor McDonald.
Information grounding the warrant alleged that, in April 1999, the International Herald Tribune in London carried an advertisement offering EU passports for $18,500.
Ms Justice Finlay Geoghegan said the court was bound to hold an inquiry into the validity of the arrest warrant.