Boris Becker, a former Wimbledon champion, was freed from prison after serving his eight-month sentence. For keeping loans and assets totaling £2.5 million hidden to avoid paying debts. In April, the 55-year-old German was sentenced to two and a half years in prison after being found guilty of four Insolvency Act offenses.
He was let out of jail on Thursday morning and has since taken a flight to Germany. According to the BBC, Becker was expelled from the United Kingdom. Becker “was released from detention in England and has gone for Germany today,” said his Berlin-based lawyer, Christian-Oliver Moser.
According to a government source who spoke to the BBC, Becker took a private plane from Biggin Hill. According to a Home Office official, BBC Sport:
“Any foreign national who is convicted of a crime and given a prison sentence is considered for deportation at the earliest opportunity.”
As a foreigner without British citizenship who was given a sentence of more than a year in jail, Becker is automatically deported.
Becker resigned from playing in 1999 and has been residing in the UK since 2012. Throughout his 15-year career, he captured six Grand Slam singles titles, including three at Wimbledon. Due to an outstanding loan of £3 million on his Mallorca villa, he was declared bankrupt in June 2017. Becker was charged earlier this year with concealing assets worth millions of pounds in order to avoid paying his debts.
He was ultimately declared innocent of 20 charges, but guilty of four related to his bankruptcy. According to reports, Becker was initially detained in south-west London’s Wandsworth Prison before being transferred to Huntercombe Prison in May. He previously served as a BBC pundit for Wimbledon and coached 21-time major singles champion, Novak Djokovic, for three seasons.
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