*US pre-clearance at Shannon Airport.
A ‘naive’ Cork teenager tried to get through US Customs & Border controls at Shannon Airport to board a US-bound flight with a friend’s passport who “he looked a bit like”, a court has heard.
At Ennis District Court, Judge Alec Gabbett imposed 80 hours community service in lieu of four months in prison on Aaron O’Brien (19) of Innishannon Road, Fair Hill, Cork.
This was after Mr O’Brien pleaded guilty to having in his possession an Irish passport in the name of Jordan White which he knew to be a false instrument on November 5th at Shannon Airport with the intention to inducing another person to believe that it was genuine contrary to the Section 29 of the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001.
Judge Gabbett commented, “Mr O’Brien is not a candidate for custody notwithstanding the seriousness of the offence”.
Solicitor for Mr O’Brien, John Casey told the court “this is not the Hutches or the Kinahans going in and out of Iraq and Iran”.
Mr Casey said that Mr O’Brien “did not have a hope in hell” in getting past US border controls at Shannon with his friend’s passport.
Judge Gabbett said that Mr O’Brien was fortunate that there is a US border control at Shannon Airport and was not allowed to get on the departing flight as he could have faced a few nights in custody at JFK or Logan Airport if the US border controls were based on the other side.
Mr Casey explained that Mr O’Brien’s wife was on holidays with her family in the US and was pregnant and fell sick.
Mr Casey said that Mr O’Brien got a short-term visa to go to America and he went to Dublin airport and when he got there for whatever reason, as he has no previous convictions, he was told that he was not travelling.
Mr Casey said that Mr O’Brien went back down to Cork and got his friend’s passport and went to Shannon Airport and he was stopped there and Gardaí got involved when Mr O’Brien tried to get through US border controls.
On his friend’s passport, Mr Casey said that Mr O’Brien “looked a bit like him alright”.
Mr Casey said that Mr O’Brien never thought it out and he just wanted to be with his wife and she is heavily pregnant now and did get back home.
Mr Casey said that it was Mr O’Brien’s first trip to the US.
Judge Gabbett said Mr O’Brien was obviously naive in trying this “as anyone who has been through US immigration knows that your face is scanned, your hand is scanned and fingerprints are taken”.
Judge Gabbett said, “I get why he did it because of his wife falling ill and his own passport not going to work”.
Judge Gabbett said that he had to convict Mr O’Brien of the offence as the Irish passport is sacrosanct and allows travel to 120 countries without a visa.
