An American pensioner who applied for passports in the names of two dead babies after he ran into “visa difficulties” while doing business in Europe has been jailed for two years and three months.
Judge Jonathan Dunphy said Randolph Kirk Parker (73) had threatened “the integrity of the passport system in this country”.
Cork Circuit Criminal Court heard evidence from Det Garda Padraig Hanley, of the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, who said reports relating to Mr Parker first came to their attention in 2017.
In 2022, Parker made an application from Amsterdam in the Netherlands to renew an Irish passport in the name of Geoffrey Warbrook.
Det Garda Hanley said this application sparked an investigation as Geoffrey Warbrook was the name of a child who died in the early 1950s in Ireland when he was an infant.
Parker was subsequently arrested on September 14th, 2023, at the passport office in Cork. He had appeared in person to renew a passport in the name of Philip Frank Morris.
Det Garda Hanley said Parker had applied for a “fast-track passport” in the name of Mr Morris in order to leave the country. At that time, gardaí believed that the name of Mr Morris was his real identity.
However, gardaí subsequently established that Philip Morris was an Irish-born infant who died in 1952.
“We had two identities for this person and four passports were applied for. Two applications in the name of Philip Morris and two in the name of Geoffrey Warbrook. He had falsely obtained genuine Irish passports.
“We had no idea who this person was. Numerous inquiries were carried out with the assistance of Interpol and the assistance of the US Embassy and Irish and international agencies.
“He had a [U]) arrest record from 1970 in Michigan and was identified as Randolph Parker.”
Parker has a date of birth of March 7th, 1951, and is a US national. His fingerprints were widely circulated following his arrest.
PPS number
He was identified with the assistance of the FBI and the US Embassy. Interpol had also liaised with their 195 member countries in a bid to help gardaí identify him. Parker held an Irish passport for three decades but only recently obtained a PPS number.
Det Garda Hanley said the charge sheet was amended to reflect the true identity of the man. Parker was remanded in custody and appeared before the district court on several occasions.
During one court appearance, he came into the dock with a Lee Child thriller in his hand which he had borrowed from the prison library.
In February this year, Parker was sent forward for sentence at Cork Circuit Criminal Court after he pleaded guilty to four counts of using false information to obtain passports and one count of possessing a false instrument.
Det Garda Hanley said the false instrument referred to was an Irish driving licence issued in 2011 in the name of Philip Morris.
A charge relating to giving a false name to a member of An Garda Síochána following his arrest was struck out.
Det Garda Hanley told Judge Dunphy that he interviewed Parker on two occasions. He said it was an “unusual’ experience as while the pensioner did not co-operate and refused to answer any queries, he was not obstructive.
Det Garda Hanley said Parker had “no previous convictions that we are aware of.”
“We have very little [information]. He did previously hold a US passport in 1999. We believed he first entered Ireland in 1988 through Shannon Airport then travelled over Europe and lived in Amsterdam.
“He had VHI here and a post office box at an address in Dublin and numerous friends all over Ireland who knew him by a different name entirely.”
Det Garda Hanley previously told the court that they had spoken to the brother of the late Philip Morris who died at the age of four months in 1953.
He said they also engaged with relatives of Mr Warbrook, who also confirmed that he died as a young baby in the early 1950s.
Defence barrister Brendan Kelly said his client was a “very affable, articulate intelligent man” who was “pleasant to deal with” during the course of their consultations.
“He has no familial connections in the jurisdiction. Friends knew him by an other identity. He came to Europe in the 1980s for business activities and met a man who facilitated him [with the Irish passports].
Foreign national
Mr Kelly said since Parker was remanded in custody he has worked on his computer skills and in the library in Cork Prison. Det Garda Hanley said he wasn’t surprised to hear this as Parker was clearly a “man of books.”
Mr Kelly respectfully said that his client’s sentence should be backdated to when he first entered custody on September 15th, 2023.
“[Parker] has lived in the EU for some time but he is effectively a foreign national with no familial connection. His time in custody will be difficult and egregious for him.”
He said Parker had applied for false passports after he encountered “visa difficulties” in the course of his business activities. Parker met a man with a “knowledge of the Irish passport system” who gave him certain advice the court heard.
Judge Dunphy told the sentencing hearing that the offences were in the “mid-range” and merited a headline sentence of six years.
He described as aggravating factors the time and cost to the State in recovering the true identity of the defendant, the breach of trust to all those who knew Parker for years under a false identity and his lack of co-operation.
Judge Dunphy said mitigating factors included the guilty plea and the lack of previous convictions in the case.
He said the pensioner was also using his time well in custody gardening and working in the library. Judge Dunphy added that he was also mindful that Mr Parker was a foreign national in an Irish prison.
He jailed Parker for three-and-a-half years with the final 15 months suspended for two years. Mr Parker was ordered to keep the peace and be of good behaviour when his sentence ends. The sentence was backdated to September last year when Parker first entered custody.
Parker was ordered to give his address and telephone number to gardaí within 12 hours of his release. Judge Dunphy warned that Parker doesn’t “want to be in a position of explaining himself” in court if there proves to be any difficulty.
