Jailed again, brazen Chinese drug dealer we just can’t deport
And he used £32k of YOUR cash in legal f ight!
AN illegal immigrant drug dealer who used human rights legislation to dodge deportation is back behind bars – after being caught running a huge cannabis network.
Chinese national Yehao Yan, 35, has been jailed for five years after admitting his role in an organised drugs gang in Scotland.
But we can reveal he should not even be in the country – as he had already been ordered out after being imprisoned for an almost identical offence in 2008.
As we reported in 2014, Yan has been using public cash to fight to stay in Scotland since his release from jail in 2012 – arguing his right to ‘family life’ means he should not be sent back to China.
Ironically, before he was caught the second time, he claimed his first stint in jail had changed him ‘for the better’.
Last night, critics warned that the case raised serious questions about Britain’s apparent inability to kick serious criminals out of the country. Concerns have also been raised that Yan was able to claim almost £32,000 in legal aid, while simultaneously profiting from drug dealing.
John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘The system for removing offenders must be dramatically improved by speeding up decision-making.
‘Taxpayers will be furious to see so much of their hard-earned money spent on legal fees and prison stays.’
Scottish Tory justice spokesman Douglas Ross said: ‘Our deportation laws are in place to stop criminals operating in this country, yet this individual has been allowed to break the law again.
‘He has shown that he cannot be trusted and questions will be asked as to why he wasn’t taken out of the country after his first offence.’
Yan arrived in the UK illegally from China in 2006 and was arrested a year later for masterminding a massive cannabis farming network near Bolton, Greater Manchester.
He was sentenced to eight years at Preston Crown Court in September 2008 after a jury found him guilty of conspiracy to produce cannabis, money laundering and possessing a false passport. He was also told he would be deported at the end of his jail term.
In 2009, he was transferred from a jail near Manchester to Kilmarnock Prison in Ayrshire to be nearer his partner and two young sons in Glasgow.
Soon after, the UK Border Agency notified him he was facing deportation – but he lodged a ‘Section 33’ exception claiming removal would ‘interfere with his family life’.
Each of his bids to stay were rejected, with questions raised about his commitment to his family before he was released from jail in 2012 – but he was not removed from the country.
Yan’s promises of turning over a new leaf were proved false when, in June 2015, he was arrested as part of Operation Settle – a police investigation into the ‘high volume supply’ of herbal cannabis in Glasgow. The High Court in Glasgow heard officers raided a flat in the Partick area and found cannabis plants worth almost £350,000 and £15,800 in cash stuffed in a Lidl shopping bag.
He appeared in court on indictment on June 29, 2015 – but fled to Spain soon after he was granted bail. A European Arrest Warrant was issued and he was brought back to Scotland in January this year to face justice.
He pleaded guilty this month to being concerned in the supply of a Class B drug and failure to appear at court.
Jailing him for five years at the High Court in Glasgow, Lord Burns told Yan he had been involved in ‘a very substantial operation’.
The judge added: ‘Despite the fact that you previously involved yourself in drug offending and were in this country illegally, you again became involved in the supply of cannabis.’
Speaking to MoS in 2014, Yan insisted he had turned his back on crime and found prison a ‘positive’ experience. He told how he had become an accomplished artist, particularly in the style of Scots painter Peter Howson, and had won the Leopold De Rothschild Platinum Award for portraits by prisoners, beating competition from inmates in over 100 other jails.
He said: ‘I did a big crime and I got a big sentence. But I have now done my time and I want to move on with my life for my family.
‘Prison was good for me. I learned to speak good English and I learned to paint.
‘I have no family left in China – I do not want to go back there.
‘I will fight to keep us all here in Glasgow. It is better for everyone to keep a family together.’
Drugs gang boss in deportation f ight funded by taxpayer Mail on Sunday: February 9, 2014