An Irish man who entered Australia on a fake passport and escaped hotel detention by scaling three storeys using bed sheets has been handed a 12-month sentence by a Queensland court.<\/p>\n
Michael Connors, 26, entered Australia several times under seven different aliases in the lead-up to his arrest earlier this year.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, the Brisbane Magistrates Court heard Mr Connors entered the Brisbane International Airport Terminal on March 13, with a passport under a different name.<\/p>\n
“That passport would not scan. He was subsequently detained for the purposes of a search,” said prosecutor Kate Thomson.<\/p>\n
“He refused to provide biometric data to ADF and was ultimately refused immigration and was detained,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ms Thomson told the court Mr Connors was taken to the Meriton Suites in Brisbane’s CBD where, two days later, he escaped through the window using bedsheets to reach the ground.<\/p>\n
Laughter spread around the court \u2014 barring Mr Connors \u2014 when Magistrate Peter Saggers interjected, “I haven’t seen that since Boggo Road in the late 80s, early 90s”.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The court heard Michael Connors had used seven different aliases to enter Australia at different stages.\u00a0 (Supplied: Australian Federal Police)<\/p>\n
Four months on the run<\/p>\n
After four months on the run, an application for an NSW driver’s license lead to Mr Connors’ ultimate arrest.<\/p>\n
“On the 30th of July of this year, Australian Federal Police were notified that the defendant had applied for a NSW drivers licence using the alias Dan Daniel Connors \u2026 he provided a counterfeit Irish passport in support of that application,” Ms Thomson told the court.<\/p>\n
Mr Connors was arrested the following day and extradited to Queensland where he had remained in custody.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The case was heard at the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Thursday. (ABC News: Christopher Gillette)<\/p>\n
He pleaded guilty to with one count of using false documents and false or misleading information and one count of escaping from detention last month.<\/p>\n
The court heard Mr Connors had also used a fake alias in Victoria and had an outstanding warrant for three further offences over a different matter in NSW.<\/p>\n
“He has repeatedly entered Australia under false aliases and continued to commit offences,” Ms Thomson told the court.<\/p>\n
‘You must like it here’<\/p>\n
During Thursday’s sentencing hearing, Mr Connors’ lawyer Mark Stone told the court that his client, who identified as an Irish traveller, faced threats of violence in his home country.<\/p>\n
“That was the reason for him travelling to Australia,’ Mr Stone said.<\/p>\n
“His intention was to bring his wife and his three children here.”<\/p>\n
Mr Stone told the court Mr Connors had spent most of the 34 days in prison awaiting sentencing in solitary confinement.<\/p>\n
Before handing down his sentence, Magistrate Saggers acknowledged Mr Connors was in pursuit of a better life for his family.<\/p>\n
“You made a daring escape, you got out through the window, with bed sheets,” he said.<\/p>\n
“You must like it here, you keep coming back under a variety of names, but the issue is when you’re here you have offended.”<\/p>\n
Mr Connors was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment for using false documents, and six months imprisonment for escaping detention.<\/p>\n
Those sentences will run concurrently, and he was ordered to serve a period of four months.<\/p>\n
Magistrate Saggers said while he would released from prison in Queensland December 1, Mr Connors’ outstanding warrant in NSW would still be dealt with.<\/p>\n
“What happens to you after that, I don’t know. But what I suspect is that there are some kids in Ireland who want you home,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Irish man who entered Australia on a fake passport and escaped hotel detention by scaling three storeys…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,83827,83825,36619,83824,83823,83828,83826,83822,44],"class_list":["post-118450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bed-sheet-escape","tag-bed-sheets","tag-brisbane-magistrates-court","tag-escape","tag-fake-passport","tag-irish-man-escapes-detention","tag-magistrates-peter-saggers","tag-michael-connors","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}