Saying his family all lived in Moldova and that one of his children has a serious health condition, the solicitor said as Bilea was currently living here and is “not permitted to work” there was “no income coming to the family whatsoever”
Laganside Courts in Belfast (Image: Liam McBurney/PA Wire)
A 40-year old man facing a charge of assisting unlawful immigration had a request to allow him to return home to Moldova refused on Friday.
Ion Bilea, with an address at Belfast Road in Bangor, was previously employed in the police service in Moldova.
He was due to be arraigned at Belfast Crown Court on Friday on a single charge dating back to last May.
He is accused of transporting persons from Dublin to Belfast docks which he knew or had reasonable cause to believe facilitated the commission of a breach of immigration law.
Whilst the arraignment didn’t go ahead, Bilea’s solicitor instead launched an application to vary his client’s bail.
The application was objected to by the Crown on the grounds of flight risk and a £2,000 cash surety being deemed insufficient.
A Crown barrister told Judge Philip Gilpin that the charge faced by Bilea related to an incident on May 18, 2025.
On that date, Immigration Officers from the Home Office had occasion to speak with the occupants of a van.
The vehicle was being driven by Bilea and was waiting to board the Stena Line ferry from Belfast to Cairnryan.
The prosecutor said that whilst Bilea “had permission to transit through the UK”, four passengers in the rear of the van were “found to have no permission to enter the UK”.
When he was interviewed under caution, Bilea said he was a courier of goods and claimed that when he was collecting parcels in Dublin he was approached by four people who asked him to drive them back to Moldova.
Bilea also claimed he felt sorry for the four people and agreed to this but was unaware of their immigration status.
Regarding the objections to Bilea’s bail, the Crown barrister spoke of a risk of flight and expressed concerns that if he left Northern Ireland he would not return for this trial.
She added that the Home Office viewed the £2,000 cash surety “is insufficient.”
A solicitor acting for Bilea said his client was a married man with three children and had “previously been employed in the police service in Moldova and as such he is well aware of the obligations of bail and what would be required from him.”
Saying his family all lived in Moldova and that one of his children has a serious health condition, the solicitor said as Bilea was currently living here and is “not permitted to work” there was “no income coming to the family whatsoever”.
At the time of Bilea’s arrest, his solicitor said he was working as a courier for a company that transported goods to and from Ireland to Moldova and Romania.
The solicitor said when arrested, Bilea was “fully co-operative with the Home Office” and that he answered all questions put to him.
He added that Bilea has been on bail since last May “without any issues ” and also raised the issue of the current withdrawal of services which meant a trial was unlikely to be heard in the near future.
After listening to both submissions, Judge Gilpin said he was refusing today’s application.
He did, however, say that if the cash surety was increased he would be “prepared to revisit” the application for a temporary variation of the conditions of bail.
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