'Dine and dash' homeless man 'missing' amid court confusion
A HOMELESS man accused of a £2,000 "dine and dash" at a luxury hotel has been "lost" after a court debacle involving at least 16 attempts to hold an initial hearing.
A farce resembling a scene from a Carry On film saw a judge told that neither the prosecution nor defence had any idea where the defendant was after a string of aborted hearings due to a lack of interpreters.
Finnish national Mikko Luistinen, 58, was first summoned to court three years ago after being accused of tucking into a gourmet meal with wine worth £1,936 at the five-star Dorchester Hotel on London's Park Lane in May 2022, with no intention of paying.
He did not turn up for the first hearing so was eventually arrested and brought before Westminster magistrates on April 12 this year to face charges of obtaining services dishonestly and failing to surrender to custody.
However, this hearing could not go ahead as no Finnish interpreters were available.
Luistinen was remanded in custody but the case had to be adjourned at least 14 more times, due to the lack of an interpreter, before it finally went ahead on April 30.
Luistinen, of no fixed address, was then detained under the Mental Health Act, with the case transferred to Southwark Crown Court for a plea hearing on May 28.
Prosecutor Henna Baig told Judge Gregory Perrins the defendant had not shown up again, but even if he had, the plea hearing could not have gone ahead as there was, again, no Finnish interpreter available.
Ms Baig and Luistinen's defence barrister Andros Anastasiou admitted the defendant was "lost" as neither had any idea where he was or had any way of contacting him.
The prosecutor told Judge Perrins there had been "15 or 16" hearings at the lower court, when there should have just been one, because they had been unable to arrange an interpreter for all but one of the hearings.
Luistinen had been remanded in custody until April 30 when he was, instead, detained under Section 2 of the Mental Health Act, to a Central and North West London NHS Trust facility.
Mr Anastasiou told the court he had no contact details or any idea where he was.
He said he was told the evening before the hearing the trust had discharged him to a hotel on May 8 for four nights and it was unclear where he was now.
Asked by Judge Perrins where Luistinen was, Mr Anastasiou replied: "We were under the impression he was still under the care of the hospital. One of his bail conditions was to be directed by these services."
He said the trust had not informed anyone of his discharge until May 27.
He added: “All I have is a foreign mobile number that no longer works”.
Judge Perrins said: "We need to find him. Was he discharged to an address?”
Ms Baig said the CPS had no idea after he was discharged to a Travelodge until May 12. The judge issued a warrant for his arrest without bail and adjourned the case until July.
CPS spokesman said interpreter availability and bail are matters for the court.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said it would not comment on the lack of Finnish interpreters, but added: "Over 99% of trials requiring interpreter services go ahead as scheduled. Statistics show that the number of ineffective trials due to a lack of interpreters is very low, at less than one per cent."
The NHS trust said it could not comment due to patient confidentiality.
