A man who stabbed his flatmate to death in Walthamstow during an argument over £5 has been sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 27 years.
Eugeniu Neamtu, 59, a construction worker known as Jimmy, was sentenced at the Old Bailey on Friday by Judge Richard Marks KC for the murder of 63-year-old Gheorghe Trica on 20 February.
Mr Trica was stabbed in the heart. He collapsed on the communal balcony outside the flat the two men shared and died despite the efforts of police and paramedics.
Neamtu called 999 himself. "There was an incident here and a person is injured," he told the operator. "I am the perpetrator."
At trial he claimed self-defence, saying Mr Trica had threatened and attacked him.
The court heard that Neamtu had killed before, in circumstances the prosecution described as strikingly similar. He was convicted of a killing in Romania in 2006 and served a 15-year sentence.
"In both cases the defendant was involved in a drunken argument with an associate over money," the prosecutor said. "In both cases he took up a knife from within the home."
Neamtu travelled to the UK as a visitor in September 2023 and remained in the country unlawfully.
Passing sentence, Judge Marks said the earlier conviction was "an extremely aggravating factor".
"The fact you killed another person within three years of your release underlines how dangerous an individual you are," the judge told him.
A Home Office spokesperson said authorities would "seek to deport him off British soil" following the sentence.
