Former tennis player Boris Becker has returned to Germany after having been released from a British prison for deportation, his lawyer said on Thursday.
The sports star’s lawyer, Christian-Oliver Moser, said he “is not subject to any penal restrictions in Germany.”
The six-times Major winner, including three Wimbledon titles, was jailed for two years and six months by a London court in April for hiding hundreds of thousands of pounds of assets after he was declared bankrupt.
“Any foreign national who is convicted of a crime and given a prison sentence is considered for deportation at the earliest opportunity,” the UK Home Office said in a statement, while the ministerial department declined to comment directly on Becker’s case.
Six major titles
Now 55, Becker retired from tennis in 1999 as one of the sport’s most decorated players.
In 2002, he was convicted of tax evasion in Germany in 2002, for which he received a suspended prison sentence.
He went on to work in the media, providing commentary for the BBC on an annual basis at Wimbledon.
Becker moved to London on a permanent basis in 2012, later going on to say “England is my home now. I have no privacy in Germany.”
In April of this year, a London jury found Becker guilty on four counts related to his 2017 bankruptcy, which he declared over a £3.5 million ($4.6 million, €4.2 million) bank loan for a Spanish property.
The court found Becker guilty of charges including failing to disclose estate and concealing debt and was given a 30-month prison sentence.
Unseeded, teenage Wimbledon winner
However, it was on the court, rather than in court, that Becker became best known, winning Wimbledon at the tender age of 17 in 1985.
He went on to win the championship at SW19 on two more occasions, retaining the title in 1986 and beating his rival Stefan Edberg in 1989. He also won the Australian Open twice and the US Open once.
jsi/es (Reuters, AP, dpa, AFP)
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