Tennis Legend Boris Becker Jailed For Tax Fraud To Be Deported To Germany

LAGOS DECEMBER 6TH (NEWSRANGERS)-The former tennis champion was jailed earlier this year for hiding more than £2m in assets and will be deported next week without having to serve his remaining sentence

Boris Becker is set to be deported to Germany next week having served less than eight months of his two-and-a-half year sentence.

The three-time Wimbledon winner, 54, was jailed in April for hiding £2.5million of assets in a bankruptcy fraud case.

He is being held in HMP Huntercombe in Oxfordshire where foreign nationals are detained ahead of deportation.

Becker is expected to return to Germany next week and will not have to serve his remaining sentence.

He has qualified for a fast-track scheme that sends criminals to their home countries before their release date in an effort to reduce pressure on British jails and save money.

The star has lived in Britain since 2012 but will be deported as he does not have British citizenship.

It is understood he will not be eligible to apply to return to the UK as a visitor until his full sentence has expired.

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.”

A foreign inmate can have up to a year cut from their sentence under the Early Removal Scheme.

More than 1,100 criminals were deported under the scheme in 2020-21.

Becker told his trial that his £38m tennis earnings had been swallowed up by a divorce and “expensive lifestyle commitments”.

After going 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, he had almost £1m in a business account that he used as a “piggy bank” for personal expenses.

Jurors heard the former BBC pundit quickly transferred more than £350,000 to nine recipients.

He also failed to declare a £1m property in his home town of Leimen, a £700,000 loan and £600,000 in shares.

Becker was found guilty of failing to declare a property, concealing debt and transferring hundreds of thousands of pounds from his business account.

Mirror

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