Shady tactics used by vile criminals to avoid UK deportation…from drug dealer’s bed-wetting to a rapist’s bisexuality

WHEN Rochdale grooming gang leader Shabir Ahmed was released from prison it sparked outrage. The Pakistani-born child rapist could not be deported back to his homeland despite being stripped of his British citizenship after his 2012 conviction for multiple counts of rape and sexual offences against girls in a case that shocked the nation. Shabir Ahmed was jailed in 2012 for 30 child rape offences during his time as leader of the paedophile gang – but will stay in the country Credit: PA Britain’s Prime Minister Andy Burnham has led demands for the grooming gang ringleader to be deported back to Pakistan Credit: AFP Ahmed, who forced his young victims to call him ‘Daddy’, was freed from prison in July to secure accommodation in the North West of England. But it was soon revealed that the Immigration Act 1971 says he cannot be deported back to Pakistan as he arrived in the UK before 1973 and lived in the country for at least five years before his deportation was considered, so his removal is barred. Sign up for The Sun newsletter Thank you! The case prompted horror at the highest levels with new Prime Minister Andy Burnham demanding ministers look at ways to get him out of the country. He wrote on X: “ “Like everyone, I want this vile criminal out of the country. Victims must come first. “I will ask the home and foreign secretaries to review all possible options – and they should consider nothing is off the table.” But while the row rages on with Ahmed – who targeted girls as young as 12 – safely tucked up in taxpayer-funded secure accommodation, it turns out he isn’t the only evil foreign criminal who has been allowed to stay in the UK despite their heinous crimes. Others are relying on the European Convention of Human Rights to help their bids to stay in this country. An Albanian drug dealer avoided deportation last week – because his daughter wets the bed. Most read in The Sun And another Albanian criminal has been allowed to stay in the country as his son’s food sensitivities means he won’t eat foreign chicken nuggets. Conservative MP Neil O’Brien slammed the legislation, telling The Sun: “Being granted residence in the UK is a privilege, not a right. “Those who break our laws forfeit that privilege and must be made to leave. “That the most serious offenders are avoiding deportation through these ridiculous claims is yet another damning indictment of our broken immigration system. “Under Conservatives’ proposals, we would leave the ECHR, (The European Convention on Human Rights) allowing us to remove all foreign offenders and reject any future claims from foreign criminals facing deportation. The Government must now back these proposals in order to put the safety of British citizens first, and end this farce.” Last week Shpresim Koka convinced a tribunal judge that sending him back to his homeland would be “unduly harsh” on his daughter, given her bed-wetting accidents. The immigration court heard the youngster’s nightmares and bedwetting got worse whenever Koka, 38, was in jail. A social worker even warned the girl needed “therapeutic intervention”. Shpresim Koka convinced a tribunal judge that sending him back to Albania would be ‘unduly harsh’ on his daughter who wets the bed Credit: Not known, clear with picture desk Conservative MP Neil O’Brien told The Sun that ‘those who break our laws forfeit that privilege and must be made to leave’ Credit: Alamy Koka had claimed to be a Kosovan refugee when he arrived in Britain in 2001, aged 14. He was jailed for 21 months in 2017 for helping a drug gang launder cash. He was due to be deported after serving his sentence but remained in Britain, and in 2022 he was locked up again for three years for cocaine dealing. He appealed against fresh plans to deport him on the grounds his daughter would suffer and in February last year a First-Tier Tribunal immigration court ruled: “The effect on (the girl) would be unduly harsh.” Koka was due to be deported after serving his sentence but remained in Britain. But the Home Office has challenged the decision and a new hearing has been ordered. A spokesperson said: “Our Immigration and Asylum Bill will make it easier to deport foreign national offenders by rebalancing Article 8 to give greater weight to the public interest in removing criminals. This will make it harder for all offenders to frustrate their deportation. “We’re delivering sweeping reforms of the immigration system to make the UK less attractive for illegal migrants and make it easier to remove them. More than 70,000 illegal migrants and foreign national offenders have been returned since the election – a 41% increase.” But despite the Government push to deport foreign criminals, some are using bizarre tactics to cling on. In March another Albanian won the right to stay in the country partly due to his son’s aversion to foreign chicken nuggets. Klevis Disha, 39, entered the UK illegally as an unaccompanied minor. He later gave a fake name and falsely claimed to be born in the former Yugoslavia. He was stripped of his UK citizenship in 2021 after serving two years in prison when he was caught with £300,000 known to be proceeds of crime. But an immigration tribunal last year ruled it would be “unduly harsh” for his 10-year-old son, known as ‘C’ in court documents, to return to Albania with his father owing to food sensitivities, sensory issues and difficulties communicating emotions. The Home Office appealed the decision, but a judge ruled again in Disha’s favour citing Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, noting that his son “struggles with certain textures of foods” and “has a limited diet”. In 2024 a convicted criminal avoided deportation after a judge ruled it would be “unduly harsh” as his wife would not be able to access IVF treatment. Nigerian Olutobi Ogunbawo, 43, was jailed for three years in 2019 after paying a Brit to register as the dad of his unborn child so his partner could stay in the UK. He fought his deportation back to Africa on human rights grounds and — in a move blasted by fertility charities — successfully extended his stay after a tribunal judge ruled that he and his wife would not be able to access IVF treatment if deported. However the decision was later reversed and the tribunal was to be reheard with a different judge. Olutobi Ogunbawo was jailed for three years in 2019 after paying a Brit to register as the dad of his unborn child so his partner could stay in the UK Credit: Home Office Judge Sarah Pinder allowed a convicted Zimbabwean paedophile to stay in Britain because he would ‘face hostility’ if he was deported Credit: supplied The tribunal noted that the first-tier judge had failed to corroborate his wife’s statement regarding access to fertility treatment with objective evidence, pointing out that a simple internet search would have shown that IVF is available in Nigeria. Last year a convicted Zimbabwean paedophile was allowed to stay in Britain because he would face “hostility” if he was deported back to his home country. Immigration tribunal Judge Sarah Pinder, accepted his lawyers’ claims that, as an openly gay man who had been jailed for more than five years for child sex offences, he was likely to face “substantial hostility” from the Zimbabwean authorities. The man was also granted anonymity and known only as RC. He is autistic and deaf, which the court accepted meant he lacked the social skills that would enable him to “defuse” hostility against him. RC came to Britain in October 2007 at the age of 16 with his mother, a British citizen, and was granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK. In 2018, he was convicted and jailed for five years and three months for sexual offences against children and distributing and possessing indecent images of children. The Home Office ordered his deportation in June 2021, but he fought this under Article 3 of the ECHR, arguing that he would face inhumane treatment in Zimbabwe because he was “a gay white man, who would seek to live his sexual orientation openly, and who is also a convicted sex offender”. Also last year judges ruled that a Jamaican man who raped a sleeping woman could not be deported from the UK on his release because he claimed to be bisexual. A judge ruled that the offender had “a well-founded fear of persecution” if he were returned to that country. But the Government insists it is hiking deportations, with figures showing there were 9,723 enforced returns recorded in the year up to March 2026, 13 per cent higher than the previous year. This includes criminals and people who have had asylum claims refused. Comment now