You're reading: Dnipropetrovsk police arrest UK fraud suspect; he denies charges

The law has finally caught up with Paul Casini, 51, a suspected con artist from Great Britain living in Ukraine for the last 14 years.

Ironically, his call to police in Dnipropetrovsk set in motion the chain of events leading to his arrest on Feb. 26.

Casini is wanted by Interpol and United Kingdom authorities on suspicion of fraud. He is not under investigation in Ukraine for any crimes.

Ihor Gusev, Casini’s government-appointed lawyer, said his client is innocent and plans to talk to the media on March 9. He is being held in a pretrial detention center in Dnipropetrovsk, the eastern Ukrainian industrial city of 1 million people.

He was caught after he called police to complain about loud neighbors. Police responding to his complaint about noisy neighbors said that he produced no identification.

“When police officers came, listened to his claims and started to fill the protocol, they asked for his passport in order to write his data correctly and according to the procedure,” his lawyer said. “But Casini said his passport was stolen. So they took him to the nearby police department for identification.”

Officers discovered that Casini was wanted by the U.K government and Interpol on suspicion of fraud and theft. A judge on Feb. 29 ordered him held for 40 days.

Ihor Bulgakov, a Dnipropetrovsk prosecutor, said Casini faces extradition. “We have already received a request from U.K colleagues for extradition,” said Bulgakov to the Kyiv Post.

Gusev is trying to get his client’s arrest declared illegal on the grounds that he was held in pre-trial detention for longer than 60 hours before making a court appearance. “If prosecutors skip the deadline, Ukrainian authorities will have to set him free,” Gusev said.