A Romanian man living in Co Tyrone, but allowed to spend weekends in Dublin while awaiting trial for alleged involvement in an attempt to blast open a cash machine, has failed in a bid to have a European holiday.
However, Ioan Anton, of Terryglassog Road, Dungannon, is to have his 'tag' removed for a weekend to attend hospital in Dublin, and then for a week to travel anywhere in Ireland with his family.
Anton, who moved to Ireland in 1998, is accused of causing an explosion, with intent to endanger life, during the attempted theft from a Costcutter's store ATM in Hamiltonsbawn, Co Armagh on June 5 2014.
Defence lawyer Plunkett Nugent told Newry Crown Court, sitting in Belfast, that Anton, who operates a car-wash employing five people, initially wanted his 'leg-tag' removed so he could undergo an MRI scan in a Dublin hospital.
Mr Nugent said he was also seeking permission to travel either to Italy or Spain for a holiday with his wife and two children, aged eight and 16, before his trial in October.
While he lives in Northern Ireland, he is permitted to spend his weekends in Dublin with his family.
Anton, he added, "has had ample opportunity to flee" but instead had met all his bail conditions, even lodging a cash bond of £2,000, which could be doubled if needed.
Mr Nugent said he "fully intends to fight his case" but was asking the court to allow him to go on holiday.
Opposing the bail variations, Michael Chambers claimed the evidence against Anton and a co-accused was "quite compelling" and if convicted could attract a sentence of 15 years or more.
The authorities, he said, would not only object to his tag being removed for a week, but also to any prospect of Anton getting back his passport.
Mr Chambers said the attack on the Hamiltonsbawn store was not just a two-man enterprise but must have involved a degree of planning by "an organised criminal gang", and there was "very great concern" about Anton absconding.
At present, he added, he had neither an 'identity card' nor passport and was therefore restricted to the island of Ireland.
Judge Brian Sherrard agreed that the tag should be removed for the weekend of the hospital visit, but said he was not prepared to allow Anton to go on a foreign holiday and would grant him one "in the island of Ireland".
