Former German tennis player Boris Becker, 55, has left the British prison where he was serving a sentence for financial crimes and must be deported, reported this Thursday (15) the British news agency PA, which did not reveal the fate of the former number 1 of the world.
Becker, 55, winner of six Grand Slam titles, had lived in the UK since 2012. He was convicted in April of illegally concealing and transferring millions of euros and pounds to avoid paying his debts after declaring bankruptcy.
The former tennis player, who had a professional career from 1984 to 1999, was sentenced on April 29 to two and a half years in prison by the British court after being found guilty of having concealed 2.5 million pounds —R$ 15.9 million at the current exchange rate.
In principle, he was expected to serve half of his sentence in prison before being able to claim the benefit of parole. Now, however, it looks like he will be expelled to Germany.
After declaring bankruptcy in 2017, Becker was convicted of charges including theft of assets, concealment of assets and concealment of debts.
During the process, the Public Ministry declared that Becker received 1.13 million euros —R$ 6.2 million at the current exchange rate— from the sale of a Mercedes dealership that he owned in Germany. The amount was deposited into a professional bank account that he used as a “personal piggy bank” to pay for luxury purchases and his children’s school.
“Boris Becker’s conviction clearly shows that the concealment of assets in the context of bankruptcy is a serious offense, for which we prosecute those who commit it”, stressed the director general of the Insolvency Service, the British government body that oversees bankruptcies.
20 years ago, Becker had already been sentenced in Germany to a prison sentence, whose application was suspended, due to problems with the tax authorities.
British judge Deborah Taylor censured the tennis player for failing to take into account the warning that that first conviction should have meant for him.
His lawyer, Jonathan Laidlaw, then considered that Becker “couldn’t find work and had to rely on other people’s charity to survive”.
The tennis player, who denied all accusations, was acquitted of another 20, including those referring to the disappearance of his trophies. During the hearings, he stated that he did not know where they were.
He sold part of the bowls at auction for £700,000 – R$4.6 million at current prices.
According to the former tennis player, the bankruptcy and the treatment he received in the press harmed the “Becker brand”.
He also had problems with the Spanish court for unpaid debts related to work on his house in Mallorca and also with the Swiss court for not paying the pastor who performed his wedding in 2009.
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