Boris Becker 'facing deportation' after serving eight months of prison sentence

Boris Becker has been freed from prison after serving just eight months of his sentence and now faces deportation from the UK.

The three-time Wimbledon champion was jailed for two-and-a-half years in April for hiding £2.5 million of assets and loans to avoid paying his debts.

The former world number one and BBC commentator was declared bankrupt on June 21 2017 – owing creditors almost £50 million – over an unpaid loan of more than £3 million on his estate in Majorca.

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The 55-year-old German, who has lived in the UK since 2012, was expected to serve half of his sentence behind bars but was released on Thursday morning and is due on a flight to be deported from the UK, the PA news agency understands.

He is thought to have been transferred to a lower security jail for foreign criminals awaiting deportation in May – Category C Huntercombe Prison near Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire – after previously reportedly being held at Category B Wandsworth Prison in south-west London.

The six-time Grand Slam champion qualified for automatic deportation because he is a foreign national who does not have British citizenship and received a custodial sentence of more than 12 months.