Cambridgeshire crook lied about visiting dying grandfather to flee country mid trial

Shaun Keen, (50), was standing trial at Cambridge Crown Court for perverting the course of justice last year but on the third day of the trial, 28 February, he disappeared.

He was found guilty in his absence and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

It was discovered he had flown from Newcastle to Amsterdam on 28 February after applying for an urgent passport and lying to Durham Passport Office. He gave passport staff his brother’s personal details with a photograph of himself and said he needed the passport to visit his dying grandfather in Germany.

The electronic boarding card system at Newcastle Airport showed a passport in his brother’s name had been used that day but when the CCTV was checked it was Keen who had used it.

Further enquiries revealed that after arriving in Amsterdam he had flown to Canada later that same day. Keen was deported by the Canadian Border Services Agency on 8 March, 2019, back to the UK where he was subsequently arrested.

Keen, of no fixed abode, was sentenced to 30 months’ imprisonment for committing an act to pervert the course of justice at Cambridge Crown Court today (30 May).

He was jailed for a further 12 months for possessing an ID document with intent, to run consecutively with the 30 months, after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing.

At the same hearing Keen also pleaded guilty to failing to surrender at the appointed time and making an untrue statement to procure a passport. He was handed three and 12 months imprisonment respectively, to run concurrently with each other and with the other sentences, making the total sentence 42 months.

DC Tom Nuttall said: “Keen thought he was a step ahead but thanks to a display of good international teamwork we were swiftly able to bring him back to justice.

“Possessing fake identity documents is a serious offence, even more so when they are used to flee the country to avoid justice.”