SUPPORTERS of Kweku Adoboli, a former trader convicted of fraud seven years ago who has been forced from his Scottish home to be deported to Ghana are to fight for a change in the law in a bid to have him return.
He and his supporters are to lobby for amendments to the 2007 UK Borders Act to comply with a recommendation by former prisons ombudsman Stephen Shaw that those who are born or brought up in the UK should no longer be deported.
Mr Adoboli, 38, who served four years of a seven-year sentence for a £1.4bn fraud at Swiss bank UBS, was born in Ghana but left when he was four and has lived in the UK since he was 12.
They pledged to carry on fighting for Mr Adoboli's return after he told how he fears he will ever see his adopted home in West Lothian, the UK, or any G20 nation again due to his forced removal.
According to immigration rules, Mr Adoboli, who made his home in Livingston, cannot now apply to return to the UK for 10 years.
But Mr Adoboli, who served four years of a seven-year sentence for a £1.4bn fraud at Swiss bank UBS, says the test to decide whether you can go back is the same one that is used to decide whether they should deport, so once removed "you are never going back".
And he is concerned that having been deported he will not be able to return to any of the G20 nations, because of information sharing.
Representatives for Mr Adoboli in the UK say the battle continues, saying: "This is far from the end of the road. We will continue to fight to right these wrongs.
"The UK Government’s own report by Stephen Shaw has stated that the automatic deportation of anyone who has lived in the UK since childhood is devastating and disproportionate.
"We will continue to lobby the UK Home Secretary to adhere to the recommendations to end this practice and revoke Kweku’s deportation so he can focus on the positive contribution of his work."
Mr Adoboli, who is godfather to the two sons of Pippa Scott and Roland Verhaaf who welcomed him into their Livingston home, wants the Home Office to implement a key recommendation in a report this summer from Mr Shaw that foreign national offenders who have lived in the UK since childhood should not be deported.
His deportation came last week, two weeks after a judicial review application was refused and while his legal representatives were still planning a Court of Appeal bid to contest a judicial review application refusal which would have allowed him to remain.
In seeking a judicial review, his representatives argued that after he served his sentence for banking fraud he had dedicated himself to public speaking and hosting workshops about improving probity in the finance sector.
But Judge Mark Ockelton rejected these arguments and said Mr Adoboli had been “talking up” his contribution to improving ethical behaviour in the business world.
Immigration minister Caroline Nokes has said that all foreign nationals sentenced to more than four years' imprisonment are subject to automatic deportation, unless there are compelling reasons for them to remain.
Mr Adoboli who said he felt "like a piece of cargo" when he was returned to Ghana said: "This fight is not over. It is not really goodbye, I don't think we have lost. I don't think it is over. We will keep fighting because it is the right thing to do. We will change the law, because it is the right thing to do."
He admitted in an interview with a Ghana TV station that his Scottish girlfriend Alice Gray had been in tears over his deportation. "She has been a rock through this process," he said. " Her father is seriously ill with brain cancer. We have a challenge which is how we balance her responsibilities to her father and helping with his care and us finding a way to maintain our relationship. This is the true cost of the violence of deportation.
"And she is devastated. She was on the phone for an hour and a half she just cried. She couldn't breathe, just cried and cried. "And there is nothing more devastating than watching your girlfriend cry and not being able to help. You can't hold them, you can't help them. I just said to breathe and it will be okay, we will find a way.
"We need to figure out how she can come to Ghana to meet my family. then we have to think about how we rebuild going forward."
Since he was detained on September 3 after having been released from prison three years ago, more than 74,000 people have signed a petition against Adoboli's deportation. More than 130 members of the UK and Scottish parliaments signed a letter to Home Secretary Sajid Javid asking him to intervene.
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel