Boris Becker released from UK jail, will be deported

Source: Sky News

Former Wimbledon champion Boris Becker has been released from jail today and will be deported from the UK, according to the PA news agency.

He served just eight months of a two-and-a-half-year sentence for hiding £2.5m of assets and loans to avoid paying his debts when he went bankrupt.

The German has lived in the UK since 2012 but now faces being kicked out of the country.

Becker is thought to qualify for automatic deportation as he received a sentence of 12 months or more and is not thought to have British citizenship.

His release is earlier than expected - it was originally believed he would serve half his term.

The 55-year-old 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.

Becker was declared bankrupt in 2017 and owed almost £50m over an unpaid loan of more than £3m on his estate in Mallorca.

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.

The German was also convicted of hiding an €825,000 (£710,000) 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 number one told jurors his $50m (£40m) 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.

Becker speaks about the turmoil of the latest case in a clip released this week for an Apple TV+ documentary.

Showing him before the sentencing in April, he says: "I've hit my (rock) bottom, I don't know what to make of it.

"I (will) face (my sentence), I'm not going to hide or run away. (I will) accept whatever sentence I'm going to get.

"It's Wednesday afternoon and (on) Friday I know the rest of my life."

His fall from grace is documented in the two-part program that also looks at Becker's turbulent personal life and his tennis career, which included three Wimbledon titles.

Becker's family as well as players past and present, such as Novak Djokovic and John McEnroe, also appear.