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Boris Becker set to be deported to Germany under money-saving scheme

Boris Becker - Jamie Lorriman
Boris Becker - Jamie Lorriman

Boris Becker is set to be deported to Germany next week under a Home Office scheme designed to save the British taxpayer money.

The three-time Wimbledon champion was jailed for two and a half years in April. He hid assets and loans amounting to £2.5 million from creditors after being declared bankrupt in 2017 over an unpaid £3 million loan.

Becker, 54, is being held at HMP Huntercombe, in Oxfordshire, where foreign nationals are detained ahead of deportation.

Less than eight months into his sentence, the tennis star is being deported to Germany and will not serve the remainder of the sentence, The Mirror reported.

He qualified for the Home Office’s early removal scheme (ERS), which allows foreign national offenders subject to deportation to be removed from prison and the UK up to a year before their sentence is due to end.

All foreign national offenders serving a fixed sentence and liable for removal are considered for the scheme. Last year, the Home Office removed 1,136 foreign national offenders under the ERS.

Becker, who won six Grand Slam singles titles, has lived in Britain since 2012 but will be deported because he does not have British citizenship. He will not be eligible to apply to return to the UK as a visitor until his full sentence has expired, The Mirror reported.

He was found guilty of four offences under the Insolvency Act following a trial at Southwark Crown Court, a verdict that left him humiliated, broke and with little prospect of future work, according to his lawyer.

Judge Deborah Taylor told him he had failed to “heed the warning” of a 2002 suspended sentence in Germany for tax evasion and had “not shown remorse”.

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.”

Becker’s former spokesman said last month: “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.”