Man who claimed to be son of murdered Irish woman to obtain passport is jailed

Sonya Mclean

A man who claimed to be the son of a murdered Irish woman in order to obtain an Irish passport has been jailed for three years.

Sabouni Abdelhamid (33) claimed to gardaí that his name was Soufiane Bouchata when he was first stopped at Dublin Airport, having come off a flight from Brussels on September 3rd, 2025.

He produced a British driving licence in the name of Bouchata and claimed that the names on both the passport and licence were his true name.

Detective Garda Paul Kane told Fergal Foley BL, prosecuting, that Abdelhamid was due to fly from Brussels to Dublin and then on to the UK.

He was stopped by authorities in Brussels who took his Irish passport off him after issues were flagged on their system. They allowed him to keep his Irish passport card and British driving licence and fly on to Dublin.

Irish authorities were alerted and stopped him when he arrived in Dublin.

Det Garda Kane said that gardaí contacted outside agencies such as Interpol and the Metropolitan police in England, and although there was a French national living in France by the name of Bouchata, his details did not match those of Abdelhamid.

However, Abdelhamid's fingerprints were linked to five different aliases and dates of birth.

Det Garda Kane said Abdelhamid had applied for the Irish passport online in December 2023, claiming that his mother was Irish woman Catherine Corridan who was murdered in London in the 1980s.

He also used a French identification document with his application to the Department of Foreign Affairs in Ireland, along with a utility bill.

The detective confirmed that there was no record of Corridan having any children.

Abdelhamid, of Finchley Road, London, England, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to possession of a false instrument - an Irish passport card - at Dublin Airport on September 3rd, 2025.

He also pleaded guilty to providing false and misleading documentation in relation to the application for that passport and having a UK driving licence which was or which he knew to be a false instrument.

The court heard that both of Abdelhamid’s parents are Algerian nationals. He has one previous conviction under one of his aliases for a similar offence.

Det Garda Kane did not accept a suggestion from Dean Kelly SC, defending, that the process adopted by his client to obtain the passport suggests that it was “extraordinarily easy to get an Irish passport” with counsel adding that it is more difficult to sign a phone contract with Vodafone.

It was accepted that Abdelhamid moved to France from Algeria and had been living there.

Counsel said he is doing well in custody.

Judge Orla Crowe said “great sophistication” was required by Abdelhamid to carry out the offences before the court.

“It required a huge amount of deliberation and planning,” she said, noting that Abdelhamid used the name of a person who actually existed in France.

“He impersonated a real person and used the identity of a deceased person,” Judge Crowe said before, saying that a headline sentence of six years was warranted.

Judge Crowe took mitigating factors into account, including Abdelhamid’s ultimate pleas of guilty and the fact that he is using his time in custody well, before she imposed a three-year sentence backdated to when Abdelhamid was first remanded in custody in September 2025.