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Graeme Hall defeats extradition request for £500,000 fraud

On 19 April 2021, District Judge Fanning discharged M from a European arrest warrant issued by Hungary for a fraud alleged to be worth over £500,000. The Judge found that extradition would breach the right to family life of M and her two year old daughter, as protected by Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Hungary alleges that M, along with her partner E and a number of other co-conspirators, while based in the UK, engaged in a “grandparent fraud” whereby they telephoned elderly victims resident in Hungary, pretended to be their grandchild, stated that they had been in an accident, and that they required funds to pay for damages. The requested persons then arranged for other co-conspirators based in Hungary to attend the grandparents’ homes to secure cash and other property. Hungary alleges that there are 220 victims aged between 70 and 96, and that the network involved 56 conspirators of which M was in the highest echelon.

The extradition of M’s partner, E, and the other co-conspirators, has been ordered.

Graeme Hall represented M and was instructed by Renata Pinter of Dalton Holmes Gray.

The case has been widely reported in the media.