Boris Becker set to be deported to Germany next week after he was jailed for hiding £2.5 million in fraud case
5 December 2022, 16:43
Boris Becker is set to be deported to his native Germany next week after serving less than eight months of his two-and-a-half-year sentence.
The former Wimbledon champion was jailed in April for hiding £2.5million of assets after being declared bankrupt.
Becker is being held in Huntercombe Prison in Oxfordshire, where foreign nationals are kept before being deported.
The 54-year-old is expected to return to Germany next week and will not have to serve the remainder of his sentence, the Mirror reported.
He was accepted for a fast-track scheme that returns criminals to their home countries before their release date. The scheme is intended to save money and alleviate pressure on British jails.
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The scheme allows "any foreign national serving a fixed sentence who is liable for removal from the UK to be removed from prison and deported up to 12 months before the earliest release point of their sentence."
Up to 135 days are slashed from sentences if offenders agree to go.
Becker has lived in the UK since 2012 but will be deported as he is not a British citizen.
It is understood he will have to wait until his sentence has expired before he's eligible to apply to return to the UK as a visitor.
Last month, Becker’s former spokesman said: “We are pleased for Boris that he may qualify for an early release and be able to travel to Germany, albeit England has been his home for many, many years. I’m sure it will mean a lot to him and his family to be reunited for Christmas.”
Becker told his trial that his £38m career earnings had been swallowed up by an expensive divorce, child maintenance payments and “expensive lifestyle commitments”.
Becker 'had it all and somehow began to think' he was untouchable
After was declared bankrupt over an unpaid £3m loan in 2017, Southwark Crown Court heard he should have declared all assets to independent trustees who would distribute them to creditors.
However, the tennis legend had almost £1m in a business account used as a “piggy bank” for personal expenses.
Jurors heard that the pundit and coach quickly transferred around £350,000 to nine recipients.
Becker also failed to declare his share in a £1m property in his German hometown of Leimen, hid an 825,000 euro (almost £700,000) bank loan - worth £1.1m with interest - and concealed 75,000 shares in a tech company, which were valued at £66,000.
Boris Becker arrives for sentencing at London court
Becker was found guilty of four charges, including including failing to disclose, concealing and removing significant assets, under the Insolvency Act 1986.
A Home Office spokesman said: “Any foreign national who is convicted of a crime and given a prison sentence is considered for deportation at the earliest opportunity.”
