Three-time Wimbledon champion Boris Becker has been deported from the UK following his release from prison.
The 55-year-old German, who has been living in the UK since 2012, was released on Thursday after serving eight months of his two-and-a-half-year sentence.
The six-time Grand Slam champion was jailed in April for concealing assets and debts worth £2.5million to avoid paying his debts.
Baker was expected to serve half his sentence in prison but was recently approved for a fast-track plan in which foreign nationals are deported if certain conditions are met. The Home Office last year removed 1,136 foreign national criminals under its expedited removal programme.
The former world number 1 tennis player and BBC commentator has been deported because he is a foreign national without British citizenship who has received a detention sentence of more than 12 months. Baker will not be allowed to apply to enter the UK for 10 years.
Some reports suggested that Baker was flown to Germany on a private jet paid for by a TV company that allegedly paid her a six-figure fee for her story. His mother has expressed happiness at the hope of his return home. According to The Sun, Elvira Baker said: “It’s the best Christmas present I could have hoped for – I can’t wait to hold my darling son in my arms.”
Baker is believed to have been transferred in May to a lower-security prison for foreign criminals awaiting deportation – Category C Huntercombe Prison near Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire – Category B Wandsworth in the south-west London after having previously reportedly been held in prison.
He was declared bankrupt on 21 June 2017 – owing creditors around £50m – over unpaid debts of over £3m on his property in Mallorca.
The two-part documentary follows Baker’s life over three years through a series of interviews. In it, he talks about the emotional turmoil he felt before being sentenced to bankruptcy crimes.
Speaking before his sentencing, Baker said he had hit a “bottom” while awaiting the court’s decision. “I’ve hit my rock to bottom, I don’t know what to make of it,” he is filmed saying. “I will face my sentence, I am not going to hide or run away. will accept whatever sentence I am going to get.