KWEKU Adoboli, a former trader convicted of fraud seven years ago, faces deportation to Ghana after being detained at Livingston police station.
Adoboli, who served four years of a seven-year sentence for a £1.4bn fraud at Swiss bank UBS, was held during a routine meeting at a local police station near his home in Livingston, Scotland, his spokesman Nick Hopewell-Smith said.
It is understood Adoboli, who was released in 2015, had been taken to the Dungaval Immigration Removal Centre and it is intended to intention to deport him on or after September 10.
READ MORE: UBS trader jailed for £1.4bn fraud
The Home Office wants to deport him under laws that require foreign nationals sentenced to more than four years in prison to be sent back to their country of birth.
Adoboli’s lawyer is preparing a new appeal for the Home Office.
A fund-raising campaign to continue his legal battle to remain in the UK has raised over £17,000 Adoboli who is Ghanaian, but has lived in the UK since the age of 12, does not hold British citizenship.
The 38-year-old, who describes himself as British, has since his release from jail given many talks to students, financial traders and others in the banking industry about how to operate ethically and avoid making the mistakes he made.
He had been reporting once a month to the Home Office and had feared that he may be arrested in preparation for deportation after he was denied permission to judicially review the deportation proceedings.
Adoboli has appealed, asking the home secretary, Sajid Javid, not to deport him because of his longstanding ties with the UK and the fact that he is working hard to educate people to avoid making the same mistakes he made at UBS.
In June, he lost an appeals court bid to block his deportation, effectively putting an end to his legal challenge.
Mr Hopewell-Smith said: “The Home Secretary has the power to exercise his discretion when there are clear and compelling reasons to do so.
“It is still hoped that the secretary of state will have the common sense not to deport an individual that is so obviously an asset to our community."
A Home Office spokeswoman said: “All foreign nationals who are given a custodial sentence will be considered for removal."
During his trial at Southwark Crown Court in 2012, he had denied the charges, which related to the period between October 2008 and September 2011.
He argued at his trial nearly six years ago that managers at the bank pushed him to take too many risks. While he admitted causing the loss, he said it wasn’t done dishonestly.
But the jury was told he lost the money in "unprotected, unhedged, incautious and reckless" trades.
The judge, Mr Justice Keith, had told him when he was sentenced: "Whatever the verdict of the jury, you would forever have been known as the man responsible for the largest trading loss in British banking history."
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