Randolph Kirk Parker was sentenced in Co Cork today, April 22, after he pleaded guilty to four counts of using false information to obtain passports and one count of possessing a false document.
Parker, 73, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison by Judge Jonathan Dunphy at Cork Circuit Cork on Monday.
The final 15 months of Parker’s sentence have been suspended on the basis that he enter into a bond of €500 to keep the peace and not come to the attention of gardaí for two years, RTÉ News reports.
Parker’s sentence is backdated to when he first went into custody last September.
It is also a condition of the bond that within 12 hours of his release from prison he provides gardaí with an address where he can be contacted.
Parker, a native of Michigan who came to Ireland roughly three decades ago, has been in prison since last September after he was arrested at the passport office in Co Cork.
Per the Irish Examiner, Detective Garda Hanley told the Circuit Criminal Court in Cork City on April 12: “I arrested the accused on September 14, 2023, at the passport office on South Mall, Cork, when he was in the process of collecting a passport for which he applied a number of days previously — in a fast turnaround application — as he wished to leave the country. It was in the name Philip Frank Morris.
“But on June 7, 2022, the same person had applied from Amsterdam to renew a passport in the name of Geoffrey Warbrook, believed to be falsely obtained. It was the name of an infant who died in 1952.
“It was reported originally in 2017 and when the renewal application was made in 2022 it sparked an investigation.
“It was believed that Geoffrey Warbrook and Philip Morris were the same person but that Philip Morris was the genuine identity and he was interviewed as such.
“(Later) it was suspected that he may not be Philip Morris. He was also a person who died in 1952 as an infant.
"So we had two IDs for this person — two applications in the name of Philip Morris, two in the name of Geoffrey Warbrook — but we have no idea who this person is.
“Numerous enquiries were made to establish the identity with Interpol.
"A number of weeks afterwards, he was identified as Randolph Parker from a 1970 arrest record in Michigan (information obtained through the FBI). He acknowledged this was his identity.
"He has been remanded in custody since September 2023. He was in possession of a previously issued driver’s license in the name of Philip Frank Morris (the false document charge)."
The court heard that Parker, who is believed to have entered Ireland from the US via Shannon Airport in 1988, has traveled around Europe and lived in Amsterdam for a period. In Ireland, he had insurance and a post office box in Dublin, as well as "numerous friends," though they knew him by a different name.
During Monday's sentencing, Judge Dunphy outlined the aggravating and mitigating factors in the case.
Parker's actions posed a challenge and threat to Ireland's passport system, the judge said, adding that Parker's offense also affected the families of those whose deceased loved ones’ names were used in the offenses.
“His lack of co-operation is another aggravating factor and costs borne by the State in prosecuting the case," Judge Dunphy said on Monday, according to the Irish Examiner.
"The breach of trust of all of his friends in Ireland who knew him for years under a false name (is another aggravating factor)."
Mitigating factors included the signed plea of guilty to the charges, obviating the necessity for a book of evidence, the fact that he was pleasant to deal with and had no known previous convictions and is now working the prison kitchen and garden.
Comments