An international conman jailed in Ireland after going on a spending spree with a credit card stolen from an exclusive hotel is to be extradited within weeks, a court ruled today.
Juan Carlos Guzman Betancourt, named by Interpol as the 30-year-old son of Colombian diplomats, is wanted for similar offences all over the world.
Although named as Betancourt, the thief has maintained that he is not the wanted man, but is Alejandro Cuenca, a 26-year-old gypsy from Cadiz in Spain who was orphaned as a baby.
Betancourt is currently serving a two year sentence for tricking his way into a suite at Dublin's Merrion Hotel, just 10 days after escaping prison in the UK.
He is due for release tomorrow, but has been remanded in custody until he surrenders to the French authorities.
It is believed the accused is also wanted in Britain to serve the remainder of a three and a half year sentence for similar crimes, of which he had only served eight weeks when he escaped.
During the theft in Dublin in June 2005, Betancourt stole a ruby ring, passport, credit cards, jewellery and cash from American tourists.
The conman then embarked on a spending spree at city centre jewellers with the stolen card, buying himself a 16,000-euro Rolex watch and other luxury items.
Just days later he was arrested by gardai who recognised him from coverage of the case in UK media.
A European arrest warrant was issued for the Betancourt, who has been compared to the fictional jewel thief Raffles and reputed to have up to 15 aliases in a number of jurisdictions.
He has already been tried and convicted in is absence of 13 offences of fraud, forgery and theft at luxury hotels in Paris between October 2000 and September 2001, and now faces a retrial.
Fingerprints sent to Ireland from the French authorities in relation to the offences have been matched against those of Betancourt.
But throughout proceedings, the accused insisted that he was Alejandro Cuenca, claiming that he and his brother were left orphaned as young children and, as gypsies who travelled around Europe, could not get identification from the Spanish authorities.
Mr Justice Michael Peart said he was satisfied as to the identify of the accused and of the fingerprint evidence.
"The person before the court is quite clearly a person who travels freely and easily between jurisdictions and within jurisdictions under a number of flags of convenience," said the judge.
"He has no difficulty assuming a variety of names as required, and it is safe to presume as a matter of probability, given the nature of the offences for which he has been convicted already, that he is capable of changing his identify, availing of forged passports and other forms of identification in order to disguise his identify and travel around Europe.
"It is not surprising in these circumstances that he feels it possible to put up the sort of smoke-screen attempted in this case in order to try and cast doubt on his identity."