Boris Becker released From Jail, Awaits Deportation

Paschal Emeka, Abuja

Former tennis superstar Boris Becker has been released from prison after serving a sentence relating to his 2017 bankruptcy, British media said on Thursday, AFP reports.

The domestic Press Association news agency said the 55-year-old German six-time Grand Slam champion will now be deported from the UK, following earlier reports in the press in Germany.

Becker was jailed for two and a half years in April for hiding £2.5 million ($3.1 million) of assets and loans to avoid paying debts.

He had been declared bankrupt in June 2017, owing creditors £50 million over an unpaid loan on his estate on the Spanish island of Majorca.
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A judge at Southwark Crown Court in south London told Becker, who has lived in the UK since 2012, that he would serve half of his sentence in prison.

But he was released on Thursday morning and was now due to be deported, PA said, without quoting sources.

He was initially reported to have been held at Wandsworth Prison in southwest London, near to the All England Club at Wimbledon where he won three titles.

But he was then transferred to the lower-security Huntercombe prison near Oxford, southern England, for foreign criminals awaiting deportation.

He qualified for removal as he is not a British citizen and received a custodial sentence of more than 12 months.