The drug dealer, his two wives and (naturally) a right to family life
Home Affairs Correspondent HOME OFFICE lawyers expected the deportation of Taoufik Didi, a foreign criminal, to be an open-and-shut case.
He had been sentenced to three years in prison for selling cocaine to undercover police officers, and so exceeded the legal criteria for “automatic deportation”.
However, the Moroccan appealed under human rights laws, telling immigration judges he had been in a loving relationship with a British woman, Marina Gregory, for 10 years. He intended to marry her and start a family.
The judges believed the 47 year-old and, to the disappointment of the Home Office, granted his appeal under the Human Rights Act — ruling that his “right to private and family life” entitled him to stay on in Britain. Yet all was not as it seemed. The judges reached their decision despite two surprising admissions made by Didi in court. He told them he already had a wife, who he had married in 1989, and was awaiting a divorce that would free him to remarry.
Furthermore, he admitted that he had initially kept his first wife’s existence a secret from Miss Gregory.
Now The Sunday Telegraph has established that Didi did not tell the whole truth in the immigration hearing and that his family life is even more convoluted than the version the judges heard.
In fact, Didi has two “wives”. He committed bigamy three years ago by going through an open-air ceremony with Miss Gregory in Cyprus, while legally wed to his first wife.
The case provides further evidence of how human rights are being “gold-plated” by the courts in immigration cases, and raises questions over how rigorous the courts and the Home Office are in checking the truth of migrants’ accounts.
Didi came to Britain in 1986 when he was 22. Three years later, on May 12, 1989, he married Karen Ann Ridley at a register office in Redbridge, north-east London. They remain married today. The Principal Registry of the Family Division confirmed that the union had not been dissolved in decree absolute.
Didi was granted indefinite leave to remain in Britain on the basis of that marriage. He told the court he began a relationship with Miss Gregory, a hairdresser from north London, in 2001 and they moved in together in 2006.
With the help of a friend, Denise Courtnell, 68, Didi set up and managed a nightspot, Bar Lush, in Chingford, northeast London, but it was here that he began dealing drugs.
He was arrested in 2009 after selling £160 “wraps” of cocaine to undercover police on four occasions, and was jailed for three years at Snaresbrook Crown Court in 2010. The bar business collapsed and Mrs Courtnell lost her home. The criminal, who has previous convictions for false accounting, criminal damage and perverting the course of justice, served half the sentence and was freed last October.
When the Home Office began deportation proceedings Didi made a first appeal, and lost. Undeterred, he brought a second appeal to the Uppertribunal and argued that he had a human right to remain in Britain because he was in a relationship with Miss Gregory.
“The appellant … says that they became engaged on March 27, 2007, and had a religious blessing ceremony on March 30, 2008, through an imam,” said Judge Peter King.
“It became evident to the tribunal that the appellant had practised ongoing deceit in respect of Ms Gregory that he had never told her that he had been previously married. Indeed, he did not seem to be divorced either.
“He had implied to Ms Gregory that he was free to marry her, which then and still now he is not.
“The appellant is now in the process of filing a divorce petition, he having been separated from his legal wife for over 15 years.” However, The Sunday Tele
graph has established that Didi and Miss Gregory had a civil marriage ceremony at the Palm Beach Hotel in Larnaca, Cyprus, on May 18, 2008. The ceremony, carried out by an official from the Aradippou Municipality, was attended by more than 100 guests.
The couple accepted each other as their “lawful spouse” and exchanged rings. In an unusual choice of music, they cut the cake to the sounds of a 1980s pop song, Somebody
Else’s Guy by Jocelyn Brown. In Didi’s appeal last October, Miss Gregory said she was “shocked and upset” when she belatedly found out about his 1989 marriage, but had since forgiven him. She neglected to mention the 2008 Cyprus ceremony.
Bigamy is a crime in Britain. Under Cypriot law, making a false statement in a civil marriage carries a prison term.
The couple’s evidence to the immigration court also raises the question of whether they committed perjury, which carries a seven-year maximum sentence.
Yesterday, Didi at first tried to claim that the 2008 ceremony was “just a blessing” until he was confronted with the evidence.
“I have been a silly boy. I just assumed that I was divorced,” he said. “I spoke to someone who said Karen had got divorced. I just assumed I got divorced.
“I haven’t slept since I found out I wasn’t divorced. I swear to God I didn’t know until afterwards. I had to lie in court. I knew I was stuck.”
He added: “Everyone’s using Article 8. I’m not the only one.
“I made a mistake and paid my dues. I didn’t go robbing people or raping people.”
A Home Office spokesman said: “We will consider any new evidence of abuse and where we can prove an individual has obtained leave to remain in the UK fraudulently we will seek to revoke it and remove them from the country.”