Prisoner on the run from Northern Irish jail turns up the USA charged with being part of organised crime gang

Elijah Gavin went missing while on temporary compassionate release from HMP Magilligan in 2022.

He was facing a fraud charge at the time, and has previous convictions for violence and burglary.

The 29-year-old is now in jail in the US, where he is charged with being one of a gang of fraudsters operating in the north-east of the country.

US authorities have said he was involved in a "multi-state construction and money laundering fraud scheme".

The Rhode Island branch of the US Attorney's Office stated: "Gavin and other co-conspirators are purported to be associated with the so-called Traveling Conmen Fraud Group, a group recognized by the FBI's Terrorist Screen Center as a Transnational Organized Crime group.

"According to the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center, Conmen Travelers are groups of Irish or UK nationals who entered the United States on pleasure or tourist visas and overstayed their visits or, more commonly, entered the United States illegally.

"Once in the United States, they go to different cities and states, soliciting construction work.

"The members often quote a low price, and then, after further inspection, demand much more money and/or convince the homeowner that their homes or business are in need of major repairs…

"Gavin and his co-conspirators defrauded property owners in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York of over one million dollars."

It added that this ill-gotten money was then laundered in New York and California.

Among the alleged victims was a recently-widowed 78-year-old.

The Attorney's Office concluded: "Gavin has been detained in federal custody since his arrest in New Jersey on January 29, 2025.

"He is scheduled to be arraigned on the indictment in US District Court in Providence on March 10, 2025.

"A federal indictment is merely an accusation. A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty."

The News Letter was tipped off to the story by journalist Seamus Hughes of the US website www.courtwatch.news , which aims to "report on overlooked court records and give readers direct access to primary source documents".

The reason was because the News Letter has previously reported on Gavin's disappearance; in fact, the News Letter's reporting is mentioned as part of the application for his arrest warrant in the USA.

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Gavin - who also goes by the names Timothy O’Reilly and Elijah Thomas - is part of a several-strong hardcore of "unlawfully at large" Northern Irish prisoners who have been missing for years.

He vanished on April 13, 2022. The News Letter only found out about his disappearance by chance, since the Department of Justice did nothing to actively publicise it.

At the time he was charged with helping to con a 65-year-old woman out of £40,000, as well as driving without insurance and without a valid licence.

Gavin was only facing charges in connection with that one fraud incident, but a court was told by a detective that he was suspected of being linked to an organised gang of scammers.

Between January 2020 and May 2021, a total of 40 victims lost cash and valuables worth £205,000 the court was told, with a PSNI detective claiming that the 65-year-old complainant was among the youngest to be targeted.

Gavin had not entered pleas at the time he went missing.

He has priors for speeding, burglarly (non-dwelling), criminal damage, burglary with intent to steal, GBH, and possession of a class B drug.

While being held on the fraud charge in 2021, a judge had refused to free Gavin (then with an address at Ollardale Park in Ballyclare) to attend his grandmother's funeral, citing fears that he may abscond.

A legal document prepared by the Department of Homeland Security states that Gavin entered the USA on October 4, 2022, from Dublin.

He had been automatically approved for a visa waiver program, via an ESTA application (Electronic System for Travel Authorisation).

It is believed the application was filled in by someone else while Gavin was still in the UK.

His application (which falsely stated that he had no convictions) was rejected by the Department for Homeland Security "because of his affiliations with The Traveling Conmen Fraud Group" – but this was a retroactive decision, taken in May 2023.