A Romanian fugitive wanted under a European Arrest Warrant is to be extradited back to his homeland after being arrested on suspicion of shoplifting in Ipswich.

The 19-year-old is one of several foreign criminals or suspected offenders from elsewhere in the European Union to have been found living Suffolk since the start of 2012.

All were discovered after being arrested for offences in the county. However, until that stage police were unaware they were here or of the crimes they had committed or were suspected of.

The teenager, who been living in Anglesea Road, Ipswich, appeared before Westminster Magistrates Court for an extradition hearing on Friday. He consented to be extradited back to Romania.

The teenager is wanted for aggravated theft following a shop break-in in Romania in 2013.

Aggravated theft is defined as theft using a weapon, threats or intimidation.

He had been arrested on Thursday after allegedly trying to steal a pair of shoes in TK Maxx in Ipswich’s Buttermarket Shopping Centre.

The teenager is said to have entered the premises with a 15-year-old female. He was alleged to have taken the tag off a pair of shoes, before putting them on and leaving his own shoes behind.

However, he was arrested before being able to leave the shopping centre.

Anne-Marie Breach, a spokeswoman for Suffolk Constabulary, said: “We can confirm that a 19-year-old man who had been living in Ipswich was arrested at around noon on Thursday on suspicion of shoplifting in the town centre.

“A subsequent check showed the suspect was the subject of a European Arrest Warrant in relation to burglary in Romania. He was detained in custody and was due to appear before Westminster Magistrates Court on Friday for an extradition hearing.”

Among the other foreign criminals or suspects found to have been living in anonymity in Suffolk was Adrian Udrea, 39, who was jailed for 16 years last November for raping an 81-year-old woman after breaking into her home in the Felixstowe area. He had previously been jailed of burglary in Romania,

In January 2012 Polish fugitive Ireneusz Melaniuk was sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering Bury St Edmunds jeweller Peter Avis.

Melaniuk, 28, a convicted robber and burglar, arrived in England while on the run after being given day release from a Polish jail and failing to return.

Since January 2012 at least six European rapists have appeared before Suffolk courts after their criminal past was discovered following their arrest for other crimes.

Last year Latvian Uldys Radionov, 21, of Riverside Road, Ipswich, who had been convicted of rape as a 16-year-old in Latvia in 2009, was jailed for 32 weeks for an assault.

In the preceding six months three other rapists from eastern Europe were also found to be living in Suffolk

In July 2012 it emerged officers were hunting another convicted Lithuanian rapist, Gintautas Lipkinas, after he fled from Ipswich while on bail for an unrelated allegation.

Four months earlier another Lithuanian found living in Ipswich was found to have a rape conviction in Hamburg in 2006.

Earlier this year an Ipswich shoplifter was deported after his criminal record in Latvia and Sweden was discovered. He had racked up 27 offences in the UK.