An Algerian man who a court heard had left his country on an improvised boat and travelled across Europe using at least four different names has been sent to jail for trespass and possessing cannabis.

The accused came to garda attention for trespassing at a house in Cork where he was squatting and two counts of having cannabis for his own use. He pleaded guilty to all charges and wanted to be sentenced today.

Judge Olann Kelleher was reluctant to finalise the case today as Sergeant Gearóid Davis confirmed that when his fingerprints were checked through Interpol there were four different aliases used in Germany in relation to those fingerprints. However, he did not have any convictions.

Defence solicitor, Pat Horan, said the main difficulty was that Algerian authorities were not cooperating in terms of enquiries made of them in relation to fingerprints for the accused.

Judge Kelleher said it would be better to wait until the Algerian authorities came back with information for Interpol before the case at Cork District Court was finalised.

Mr Horan said he understood, but suggested it was a balancing act in terms of the rights of the accused not being remanded in custody indefinitely where it was not likely that the Algerian authorities would ever come back with information.

The judge agreed to finalise the case. He imposed an overall sentence of four months, backdated to September 6 when he went into custody.

Mr Horan said that since the date the accused went into custody he consistently gave his name as Bayou Karim who was a refugee from Algeria with a French PPS number under that name. However he said that, because he had been remanded in custody, he had no documentation in support of that claim.

Earlier in yesterday’s hearing the judge said he was concerned the defendant had given them his name as Sammy Akrich, aged 26. Mr Horan said the defendant’s name was Bayou Karim, aged 32.

He pleaded guilty to trespassing in a building at Kinsale Road, Togher on September 3. He was squatting there at the time. He also admitted having cannabis for his own use on two occasions in early September.