A wealthy businessman is likely to be deported to Ireland after he has finished a jail sentence for organising a price-tag-switching scheme that netted more than $400,000 in 13 US states.
A California court heard that Anthony Davenport (59) had made $3.9 million working as an engineer in the Middle East and as a real estate investor in Britain before moving to the US.
He has since repaid all the money made from the price-tag fraud, which involved creating bogus bar codes to buy household furnishings cheaply and then returning the purchases to a store for a full price refund.
Davenport and Patrick Hay (58), from Scotland, were jailed for 30 months this week and have already served 26 months in custody. Along with Davenport's wife, Ms Linda Broderick, the pair had created thousands of bar codes using a scanning machine and personal computer.
The three switched bar-code price tags on thousands of items and travelled across the US operating the scam. Ms Broderick has already been sentenced and deported and is now working for a nunnery outside Dublin, according to court documents.
Davenport's lawyer, Mr Dan Horowitz, said his client would likely be released from prison in three months and would almost certainly be deported, even though he is wanted on similar charges in Santa Barbara County and in the state of Georgia.
Mr Horowitz said his client was "an extremely intelligent man" who had spent his childhood in Irish orphanages.
California police arrested Davenport, Ms Broderick and Hay in 2002 after they used the scam at Home Depots across the US for more than a year. The government seized $821,949, a mobile home and a van.
The three each pleaded guilty to wire fraud. Davenport went on hunger-strike in prison to protest at conditions and cost the prison system hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills and manpower.
According to the sentencing report Davenport was orphaned in Ireland and studied civil engineering but did not graduate. He lived in the Middle East for 16 years and worked as an engineer in the oil business.
He bought seven properties in England and made $3.9 million.