Illegal migrant locked up ‘too long’ awarded £40k

Iranian handed payout despite 15-year crime spree in Britain

AN ILLeGAL immigrant who committed a string of crimes in Britain has been handed £40,000 in d amages a fter t he H ome O ffice locked him up for too long.

Hassan M assoum R avandy, 4 6, f rom Iran, who lived here illegally for 15 years, received the payout after he was unlawfully detained for17 months.

Judge Heather Baucher ruled that £40,000 was an ‘appropriate award’ despite Government lawyers arguing it was as much as innocent victims of accidents might receive in compensation.

Ravandy entered the UK in the back of a lorry in 2000, Central London County Court heard. He said he could not return home for fear of persecution. But his asylum claim was rejected after a tribunal found he lied about his brother’s death at the hands of Islam i stgroup Hezbo ll ah. It was said he had probably fled Iran because he was involved in i llegal c urrency t rading.

A deportation order was issued in 2002 but Ravandy remained in the UK for the next 15 years, the Mail on Sunday reported. During that time h e committed crimes-including handling stolen goods, burglary, shoplifting and possession of cocaine.

He was taken into custody and the Home Office said it was necessaryto de porthim because hispresencein the UK was ‘ not conducive to the public good ’.

But he refused to return to Iran and therewere difficulties with-the authorities in Tehran providing the necessary travel documents. It is not known if he has since been deported.

Lawyers conceded he was unlawfully held between March 2014 and August 2015, a total of 512 days.

Ravandy’s lawyer had tried t o secure a payout of £55,000, arguing that being deprived of his liberty was ‘a very grave matter’.

But Fiona Scolding QC, for the Home O ffice, s aid t he a mount w as ‘more than you would get for very serious personal injury damages’ and a rgued Ravandy h ad ‘ no g ood reason not to return to Iran’.

Tory backbencher Philip Hollobone, who has tabled bills that would make it easier to de port foreign criminals , told the Mail on Sunday :‘ This is yet another crazy judicial ruling and further reason to reform human rights laws so that taxpayers’ money isn’t spent on compensation for people who don’t deserve it.’

In 2009, Ravandy was interviewed by the charity Detention Action. He was described as being ‘from Iran and London’ and had been detained for 21 months.

He said: ‘They said they had the right to keep me here until they got emergency travel documents, which they can never do. I did cooperate.

‘I sent fax to foreign minister in Tehran, I sent many letters to get documentation. I mmigration s aid you’re not doing your best. [The court] said we don’t believe you sent the letter.’

Foreign criminals were given a total of £4 million in compensation last year after claiming they had been unlawfully detained or locked up for too long.

They included a Somali sex offender with a record of offences including grievous bodilyharm,who was given £105,000 for being unlawfully d etained f or m ore t han a year, and Jumaa Kater Saleh, from S udan, w ho l ured s choolgirls into a house for sex.

A Home Office spokesman said: ‘We do not routinely comment on individual cases.’