GOVERNMENT lawyers have claimed it was in the "public interest" to deport a famed American session musician who supports himself on income of around £60,000-a-year.
Steve Forman, a percussionist and lecturer at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow, is fighting a Home Office bid to throw him out of the country.
A judge at an Immigration Tribunal yesterday was told Mr Forman, 68, had played with artists including Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Fleetwood Mac and John Lennon.
So many of Mr Forman's students and supporters turned up to the hearing they could not be accommodated in the court room.
After hearing evidence, the judge deferred his decision until the New Year, meaning the musician will get to spend Christmas in Scotland before learning his fate.
Mr Forman, originally from Los Angeles, is set to be deported because his Conservatoire salary is short of the £31,000 he needs to meet Home Office immigration rules.
But royalties and other sources of income mean he earns in the region of $7,600 - almost £5,000 - a month.
Mr Forman, who has lived in Scotland for six years and does not claim "a dime" in benefit, has been teaching music students at the conservatoire for four years.
But a lawyer for the Home Office, who declined to give her name to journalists, told the hearing: "The public interest in this case is more than enough to justify his removal."
She said he could not stay on the basis that he claimed no benefits, wanted to work and had committed no offences.
Mr Forman's defence lawyer, Fraser Latta, said: "This is a person who is not only a teacher but also a person of value to the community.
"There have been 63 letters of support for Steve from colleagues, students and lecturers.
"This is not someone who is here for monetary reasons. He is not only a teacher for the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland - he is infused by life here.
"This is a man who has had a considerable history of working with David Bowie, Pink Floyd, the Beach Boys and movie sound tracks such as E.T."
Judge John Macdonald, deferring a decision until January, agreed there "is no shortage of support for Steve Foreman".
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article