Boris Becker moved to jail for foreigners facing deportation
25 May 2022, 10:46
Disgraced tennis star Boris Becker has been moved to a prison for foreigners, indicating he will be deported from the UK.
The three-time Wimbledon champion, 54, is now in Category C Huntercombe Jail in Oxfordshire after his transfer from higher security Wandsworth in south London.
The German tennis legend who has been working as a tv pundit was jailed for two and a half years last month for fraudulently concealing £2.5million after being declared bankrupt in 2017.
Huntercombe is a Category C prison which houses only foreign criminals who are typically due for deportation. In its last inspection it was considered to be a "safe, decent and purposeful" prison.
Last year inmates were even treated to a "film-making and interview course".
The prison also has its own TV channel. Becker could work out in the gym, and play basketball or football – but there is not believed to be a tennis court.
Accommodation was "clean and properly maintained", but some cells were overcrowded and self-harm incidents were "high" as inmates worried about impending deportation.
Victorian Wandsworth was described in an inspection last year as a "crumbling, overcrowded, vermin-infested prison" where inmates were "desperately bored".
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The Home Office has indicated Becker fits the criteria to be sent back to Germany when he is released.
The star, whose main home is in London, had talked of obtaining a British passport but never did so.
Any foreigner jailed for a year or more is considered for removal if it is deemed "conducive to the public good".
Becker’s German lawyer Christian-Oliver Moser confirmed the transfer yesterday adding: "It is a Category C prison, which means it has a low security level."
The jail holds foreign criminals serving sentences of between three and 30 months.
Twice-wed father-of-four Becker raked in more than £20million in prize money during his glittering tennis career, but lavish spending, divorce, legal problems and bad business decisions consumed his fortune.
Upon arrival at Huntercome, Becker will have had a "rub-down search" and been offered a phone call – meaning he could have contacted his elderly mother.
Huntercombe was originally built as a Second World War internment camp and was used as a borstal until 1983. In 2012, it became one of two prisons designed to hold solely Category C foreign prisoners.
