Foreign criminals dedicated greater than 10,000 offences in a 12 months after dodging deportation: Quarter of offenders from abroad reoffended on streets of Britain following launch from jail, figures present

Foreign criminals who avoided deportation carried out more than 10,000 crimes in a year, new figures have revealed. 

Ministry of Justice data shows nearly a quarter of foreign offenders were responsible for a further offence after being released from jail or handed a court order. 

The 3,235 criminals who were freed from jail without being deported were behind 10,012 offences in the year to March 2022 – a rise of 25 per cent on the last annual total of 8,021.

Over the last four years of data – released by officials in a parliamentary question – foreign offenders were guilty of 40,000 crimes ranging from robbery and drug dealing to murder. 

Jamaican criminal Ernesto Elliot murdered a 35-year-old man in a horrific knife fight in June 2021 – six months after his planned removal from the UK on a Home Office charter flight was derailed by a last-minute human rights appeal by Labour MPs and celebrities.

As well as criminals who were freed from jail and avoided deportation, the MOJ data also includes people who were previously deported before returning to Britain illegally. 

‘Rolex Ripper’ Amine Bentaib, 30, tried to steal a £18,000 watch off a grandfather in London in July 2023 – a year after he had been due to deportation. 

Christopher Harris heroically fought off the thug and he was arrested and jailed yesterday for 45 months, adding that he ‘will qualify as a foreign criminal and be subject to automatic deportation’. He is believed to be from Algeria. 

‘Dangerous’ offender Mauricio Myftaraj was jailed for 15 years in 2020 after police found a revolver, a pistol, 40 rounds of ammunition and gunpowder at his home in London. 

He had been deported in 2015 after being jailed three years before for a firearms offence, but managed to return illegally and continue his career in serious organised crime. 

And fellow Albanian Armando Gjoka, 24, was jailed yesterday for transporting £100,000 of cannabis – after previously being deported for a drug offence before returning illegally

The Home Secretary is obliged by law to deport any foreign criminal who has been sentenced to more than a year in prison, but has discretion to kick out any locked up for less than a year if it is in the public interest. 

Reacting to the figures today, former immigration minister Robert Jenrick said: ‘Deport foreign criminals. Every lever of the state – from visa sanctions to withdrawing foreign aid – must be pulled to get countries to take back their own people.’

The data was obtained by Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe in a parliamentary question to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper. 

The MOJ also released a breakdown of the offences carried out by released foreign criminals, including 1,412 violent assaults, 2,688 thefts and 72 robberies in the year ending March 2022 alone. 

There were a further 558 instances of possession of weapons and 213 sexual offences. The highest reoffending rate was for theft, at 44.8 per cent. 

Jamaican man Ernesto Elliott was a prolific offender with 17 crimes on his rap sheet including possession of an imitation firearm.

But following interventions by celebrities and Labour MPs, his lawyers lodged a last-minute challenge against deportation, citing Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

He claimed it would breach his rights to be separated from his UK-based family, including his son Nico who went on to be convicted alongside his father of a horrific knife murder.

Six months after he was supposed to be sent back to his native country in December 2020, Elliott murdered 35-year-old Nathaniel Eyewu-Ago.

In another shocking case, Jamaican drug dealer Lloyd Byfield evaded deportation for years before killing a 26-year-old woman in her own home. 

Byfield pursued a relationship with Leighann Duffy before he armed himself with a claw hammer and a large red handled kitchen knife and smashed his way into her flat in Walthamstow, east London. 

After pleading guilty to murder, he was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 26-and-a-half years in 2015 by Judge Nicholas Cooke, who told him he may never be released.

Flogert Farruku, was caught acting as a ‘gardener’ at a £60,000 cannabis farm – five years after being deported for the exact same offence. He has been locked up again and is expected to be deported upon his release. 

Dorian Puka, a fellow Albanian who has twice been jailed and deported from the UK, was filmed earlier this year flaunting his Ferrari on the streets of London after sneaking back into Britain.

The Gucci-wearing 28-year-old posted a video of himself driving the £300,000 supercar to his Instagram and TikTok accounts.

The Home Office acknowledged in October the burglar had been deported before but said it was powerless to do so again until his asylum claim has been heard in full.

Other social media posts showed him enjoying evenings at local shisha bars, treating relatives to high-end meals, and unboxing a brand-new Patek Philippe watch – all without a Border Force agent or policeman in sight.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: ‘It costs tens of thousands to hold an offender in prison and since the new Government came into power, we have returned 14 per cent more foreign national offenders than in the same period last year.

‘As the public would rightly expect, we continue to work closely with the Home Office to deport more foreign national offenders, keeping our streets safe and saving taxpayers millions.’