Traveller bailed to Dale Farm while he fights extradition to Romania over "crime gang" allegations

EXCLUSIVE: A TRAVELLER from the Dale Farm clan who originate from Rathkeale is wanted in Romania for allegedly belonging to a criminal organisation.

Patrick Quilligan, 26, who is a British national, was arrested in the UK earlier this year by the Met Police on a European Arrest Warrant from Romania.

The warrant states he is wanted "for the offence participation in criminal group."

Quilligan, who denies the offence, appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Thursday for an extradition hearing after he contested being sent to Romania.

He will learn the outcome at a future hearing. He has been bailed to live at the Oak Lane traveller site in Crays Hill, near Basildon, Essex, which is the legal half of the infamous Dale Farm site, the illegal portion of which was destroyed in a Basildon Council led eviction in 2011.

Quilligan has been under an electronically-monitored curfew whereby he must stay at a designated pitch on the site each day between 2am and 4am.

He must not enter any international travel hubs or be in possession or apply for any international travel documents and his passport had been retained by the Met.

He has also had to pay an £8,000 security to the court and must keep a designated mobile phone charged and on and on his person 24 hours a day.

The Rathkealers are a large clan of traveller traders who originate from the Limerick town in the Republic of Ireland, where some have traditional bricks and mortar homes that are left empty for much of the year.

It is while they are on sites like Oak Lane or the Smithy Fen site in Cottenham, where many of the younger generation were born, but there are also connections to a council estate in Wolverhampton.

Some of the clan are also known to spend months at a time carrying out various trades across Europe or even as far away as Australia.