Court report: 28/07/2020 @ Snaresbrook Crown Court
I’m at the Sentencing of a Mr Preda Eugen in Courtroom 5 before His Honour Judge P Southern.
Readers may recall the issue I had accessing the case of Mr ‘DP’ as the court could only accommodate a maximum of one public observer. Whilst waiting for the court to call this case I eagerly looked around for family members or anyone else who could usurp my position in the queue. I was relieved to see no one waiting, indeed – not even the defendant shows up (although I’m reliably informed that doesn’t free up a chair).
After a short delay and multiple tannoy announcements the case begins in Mr Eugen’s absence. As he purports to be self-represented it’s only the barrister for the CPS who makes submissions.
The learned gentleman makes it clear that as far as Google is concerned “Preda” is an exclusively female name. Apparently, the place of birth given doesn’t exist either (and is in fact a manufacturing company based in Holland). The address of “17 High Street” morphed into “77 High Street” depending on which agency the defendant spoke to (but the postcode doesn’t match either of them).
It’s turning into quite a farce.
The court is told he initially declared himself as Lithuanian before swiftly changing to Romanian when a Lithuanian interpreter turned up and he couldn’t understand her during a previous telephone hearing.
Dear oh dear.
A bench warrant is issued for his arrest but I doubt we’ll ever uncover the true identity of Mr Eugen.
Mouse in the Court 