Boris Becker has been freed from prison after serving just eight months of his sentence and now faces deportation from the UK.
The 55-year-old three-time Wimbledon champion was jailed for two-and-a-half years in April for hiding £2.5m of assets and loans to avoid paying his debts.
The former world No 1 and BBC commentator was declared bankrupt on June 21, 2017 – owing creditors almost £50m – over an unpaid loan of more than £3m on his estate in Majorca.
Becker, 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.
The German 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.
Earlier this year a court was told Becker received around £950,000 from the sale of a Mercedes car dealership in Germany which was subsequently paid into a business account used as his “piggy bank” for personal expenses.
Becker was found guilty of transferring hundreds of thousands of pounds to other accounts, including that of his ex-wife and estranged wife, as well as failing to declare a property in Germany and hiding a bank loan worth almost £700,000 and shares in a tech firm.
Of the 20 charges he was acquitted there were nine counts of failing to hand over trophies and medals from his tennis career.
