Drug dealer father of a Premier League club academy player among crooks spared from Jamaica flight

The convicted cocaine dealer father of a Premier League academy footballer was among criminals set for deportation to Jamaica on the flight challenged by Labour MPs and celebrities.

Courts have ruled the crook – whose identity cannot be reported under a restriction order – should be transported to the country after serving three years for four counts of supplying Class A drugs.

The Jamaican national, who entered the UK in 1988 as a visitor, was first served with a notice to deport back in September 2003 a year after his convictions.

But after 17 years of battling the Home Office, including one spell when he was on the run for seven years, in October it was ruled he would be deported.

It is understood he was slated for one of the UK flights back to Jamaica of foreign criminals.

One planned journey descended into chaos yesterday after 23 serious crooks submitted last-minute appeals – including human rights claims – which led to them avoiding deportation.

Model Naomi Campbell, Line of Duty star Thandie Newton, James Bond actress Naomie Harris and historian David Olusoga were among celebrities who signed an open letter demanding none of the offenders be removed, at least for the time being.

Protesters urging the flights to Jamaica to stop during a London protest in February

They believe many of the people on the flight had lived in the UK since they were kids and could be descendants of the Windrush generation or have turned to crime after being forced to by traffickers. 

Details on the new criminal come after murderer and two rapists avoided the latest deportation after yesterday’s legal challenge.

Michael Antonio White, convicted of murder in 2003 after shooting a man six times, was taken off the plane after a last-minute appeal. 

Others who dodged deportation yesterday included the two rapists, two convicted of attempted murder and others convicted of supplying Class A drugs and possessing firearms. 

Plea: Thandie Newton

Letter: Bond actress Naomie Harris

Thandie Newton, left, and Bond actress Naomie Harris, right, signed the petition 

Appeal: Historian David Olusoga urged airlines not to carry out Home Office deportations

Appeal: Historian David Olusoga urged airlines not to carry out Home Office deportations

Criminals they’re backing  

Fitzroy Daley

Fitzroy Daley

Fitzroy Daley

Knifeman Fitzroy Daley was deported yesterday – ten months after he managed to avoid being removed on an earlier flight.

Daley was jailed for ten years after stabbing a man to death in a row outside a pub. The Old Bailey was shown CCTV footage of Daley attacking Eric Paul, 50, from behind as he walked away after a ‘minor scuffle’ in East London just before Christmas in 2012.

The court heard Mr Paul was stabbed several times with a 6in kitchen knife. A jury acquitted Daley, then 36, of murder but found him guilty of manslaughter.

Paul Bingham and Ricardo Forbes

Murderers Paul Bingham, 49, and Ricardo Forbes, 52, were also on the flight, nearly 18 years after being jointly convicted of a ‘brutal killing’.

Paul Bingham

Paul Bingham

The career criminals were handed life sentences for shooting crack cocaine dealer Harrington Jack at point-blank range. The pair went to his flat in North London to try to steal his drugs in 2002. They ordered him to turn out his pockets, and shot him in the chest when he refused.

They used the same silver Brocock airgun – which had been modified to shoot real bullets – to threaten customers when robbing a string of bookmakers. Bingham tied up the manager of a Berkshire betting shop – and his wife – before grabbing £3,100. Weeks later, they robbed a William Hill in South London. 

Michael White

Murderer Michael Antonio White avoided deportation yesterday after a last-minute appeal by lawyers.

He and accomplice Hopeton Alexander Pink received life sentences at London’s Kingston Crown Court in 2003. They ambushed victims Sean Black and Robert Bayley – whom they believed owed them money – and shot Mr Black six times at close range, killing him.

In all, 23 serious criminals submitted last-minute appeals – including human rights claims – which led to them avoiding deportation to Jamaica. They had been sentenced to a combined 156 years in jail.

Only 13 criminals from an original list of 57 were on board a Home Office charter plane which took off from Stansted Airport in Essex in the early hours of yesterday.

They included two ‘Yardies’ who shot a man dead on his doorstep and a man who stabbed a 50-year-old to death after a scuffle outside a pub. 

The remaining 21 originally targeted for removal had submitted earlier legal challenges or were taken off the passenger list for other reasons.

All 57 were born in Jamaica and none were UK citizens – but Labour campaigned to keep them in the UK. 

Opposition MPs compared the deportation flight with the Windrush scandal, even though the Caribbean migrants who suffered awful injustice in that episode were entirely innocent and had committed no crimes.

Murderers Paul Bingham and Ricardo Forbes were deported on yesterday’s 2am flight, 17 years after shooting crack dealer Harrington Jack at point-blank range.

Also deported yesterday on the chartered Boeing-757 was Fitzroy Daley, who killed Eric Paul after the pair fought outside an East London pub in 2012.

It was not known last night if the Home Office will attempt to deport murderer White at a later date.

A Home Office spokesperson said: ‘Each week we remove foreign criminals from the UK to different countries who have no right to be here, and since January 2019 we have removed over 6,400 foreign national offenders.

‘Our priority is to protect the British public and we are doing everything possible to reduce legal challenges and increase the numbers of FNOs and those with no right to remain in the UK being removed.’

Immigration Minister Chris Philp said: ‘It is disappointing that specialist immigration law firms continued to use last-minute tactics to remove a significant number of offenders from this flight. 

‘Those we are attempting to remove have committed crimes which have a devastating impact on victims and their families.’

More than 60 opposition MPs, most from Labour, tried to stop the flight, saying of the criminals: ‘Britain is their home.’ MPs who signed the letter included ex-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, former shadow home secretary Diane Abbott and ex-shadow chancellor John McDonnell.

Miss Patel said ‘the idea of these deportations being halted at the last minute only serves to re-traumatise [their victims]’.

Pressure group Detention Action said some of the criminals should not be deported as they had ‘high blood pressure’.

Deportations to Jamaica have become politically charged since the Windrush scandal, in which scores of legal migrants from the Caribbean were wrongly removed from Britain.

Crackdown on migrant men posing as children 

By David Barrett Home Affairs Correspondent for the Daily Mail  

Adult migrants who claim to be children will face tougher checks, ministers announced yesterday.

The Home Office revealed plans to stop abuse of the legal regime used to determine asylum seekers’ age.

It comes after a series of scandals in which grown men posed as children, and were taught in GCSE classes with 15-year-olds. Last week it emerged a balding male who appeared to be in his 40s was being taught in a Coventry school. Immigration Minister Chris Philp said mistakes posed ‘very significant safeguarding risks’ to children.

He told MPs: ‘One of the areas we are looking at closely is whether we can legislate to clarify better in statute how these age assessment processes work.’