Former Grand Slam champion Boris Becker is facing deportation from the UK once he has served his prison sentence for trying to avoid money he owed after bankruptcy. He was jailed last month for two and a half years last month after being found guilty of concealing GBP 2.5 million of assets.
He was initially detained at Wandsworth, a Category B prison, ironically located close to Wimbledon, the scene of some of his greatest triumphs on a tennis court. He has now been moved to a facility in Oxfordshire, which is primarily used to house foreign criminals.
Since he has been incarcerated, the German media has avidly followed his life behind bars. Becker has complained about the grim food he has been served. He was be unhappy about being served corned beef as his first meal in prison, and has said that the portions are tiny.
Becker is given an allowance of just GBP 10 a week, and uses this money to top up his rations by buying chocolate, biscuits and bananas from the prison canteen. He has been struggling to sleep due to the constant noise at night, and also the stench within the prison itself. Unlike many prisoners, however, he was given a cell to himself, and was not made to share with another inmate.
Becker, 54, has lived in the UK since 2012 but does not have British citizenship. Since Brexit, he does not have the automatic right of abode in the country either. It looks like when he is finally released – in reality he will serve less than half of his sentence – he will be deported back to Germany. That is because he is a foreign national without citizenship who has received a prison sentence in excess of 12 months.
He can appeal against the deportation on the grounds that he has a 12-year-old son, Amadeus, with his estranged wife Sharley “Lilly” Becker, a model, who was born in the Netherlands. Meanwhile, he will continue to keep his many fans entertained with his tales of prison life.