A Dublin-based US immigration officer who falsely told a woman he met on a dating website in Ireland that he was a divorced US customs attache was sentenced to eight months’ home confinement in a Florida court yesterday.
Documents filed with the US district court in Florida show that Roger J Kiley (42) pleaded guilty to one count of “false personation” and one count of making a false statement at a court hearing in Miami in September.
The supervisory customs and border protection officer was assigned to the pre-clearance operations office in Dublin Airport between 2009 and 2011. He moved to Ireland with his wife and son. In 2010 he met the woman, a Dublin resident, through an online dating site.
Kiley told her he was a customs attache at the US embassy in Dublin, a position that did not exist, and falsely claimed he would arrange for the embassy to lease the house in which she lived.
According to the documents, in February 2011 Kiley obtained a draft lease from the US embassy in Dublin and used it to create a fake lease for the residence owned by the woman’s sister.
In July of the same year, Kiley created a bogus letter using the US embassy letterhead purporting to authorise the pair’s relocation to the US and forged the signature of the deputy chief of mission on the letter.
The woman shipped personal belongings and household items, with an estimated value of $2,500 (€1,900), to the US in the belief that she would be relocating to Miami, Florida.
In October 2011 she went to the US embassy, at which point she discovered that the lease was fraudulent and the letter authorising her relocation to the US was false. The judge sentenced Kiley to eight months’ home confinement, three years’ probation, 150 hours of community service and restitution of $2,500.