Former tennis legend deported from UK

Former tennis legend Boris Becker was deported from the United Kingdom yesterday after serving eight months of a two and a half year sentence for charges relating to a 2017 bankruptcy case.

The former world No. 1 tennis player was put on a plane for Germany after he had been released from custody and deported.

Becker’s lawyer, Christian-Oliver Moser, made known that the German “has served his sentence and is not subject to any penal restrictions in Germany.”

The six times Grand Slam tennis champion refused all requests for an interview.

The UK Home Office released a statement but declined to personally comment on Becker’s case.

“Any foreign national who is convicted of a crime and given a prison sentence is considered for deportation at the earliest opportunity.”

Becker was found guilty of four charges in April relating to his 2017 bankruptcy case under the Insolvency Act.

The 55 year old was sentenced by Judge Deborah Taylor at Southwark Crown Court to two-and-a-half-years. He was originally due to serve half his sentence in jail but only served eight months.

Taylor accused Becker of “playing the system with bad faith” by concealing and transferring assets and deprived creditors of more than US$2.51 million in assets.

He was found guilty of transferring hundreds of thousands from his business account to others and failing to declare a property in his hometown in Germany.

Becker was also convicted of hiding a US$867,000 bank loan and 75,000 shares in a tech firm.

Becker denied the charges but the judge said he’d not shown any remorse or acceptance of his guilt.

The former world No.1 told jurors that his US$50 million career earnings were swallowed up by an expensive divorce from his first wife, child maintenance payments and expensive lifestyle commitments.

In 2002, he was also convicted of tax evasion and attempted tax evasion in Germany.

The former tennis legend was reportedly being held at the lower security Huntercombe Prison near Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, after previously being jailed at Wandsworth Prison in London, according to the Sky News.

Originally from Germany, Becker has been a hugely popular and successful figure in the UK ever since he won a historic first Grand Slam title at Wimbledon at the age of 17 in 1985.

He was the youngest male to win a Grand Slam at the time and also the first unseeded player to win a major. Becker went on to claim a further five titles, two more Wimbledon titles, two Australian crowns, and a US championship.

Becker moved to London in 2012 but does not have British citizenship.

The German became a media pundit for a while before returning to tennis to coach Novak Djokovic.