Immigrant drug baron: Mahmoud Jaber, 31, had been peddling heroin and crack cocaine in Lancashire
An immigrant drug baron will finally be thrown out of Britain after he exploited human rights laws to legally stay in the country and commit more crimes for eight years.
Mahmoud Jaber, 31, had been peddling heroin and crack cocaine in Lancashire to live a lavish lifestyle and served three jail terms.
But although he was told he would be deported as long ago as 2006, Palestinian-born Jaber - whose father lives in the UK - used Article Eight of the Human Rights Act to successfully appeal the order, arguing he had a ‘right to family life.’
Yet he was then convicted of a string of further drug trafficking offences - claiming he was ‘emotionally scarred into drug taking’ by his experiences after being born in a refugee camp in the Palestinian West Bank.
When he was again warned he would be deported back to Palestine, Jaber again used Article Eight in a bid to stay in the UK.
Today it was revealed that after a series of legal battles and appeals, an immigration judge has ordered Jaber to be sent back to Palestine - saying the criminal had an ‘appalling history.’
It is thought the case will have cost the taxpayer thousands of pounds in legal fees.
The saga began after Jaber arrived in Britain in 1988 for a six-month stay only to come back permanently in February 1992, to join his father and move to Accrington, Lancashire.
New home: The saga began after Jaber arrived in Britain in 1988 for a six-month stay only to come back permanently in February 1992, to join his father and move to Accrington (pictured) in Lancashire
His father - who had arrived earlier in the UK in 1987 had already lost a battle to claim asylum in 1990 but he was granted leave to remain due to ‘exceptional circumstances.’
Jaber was allowed indefinite leave himself in 1998 in line with his father and attempted to get British citizenship.
But in 2003 he was convicted of a series of offences including resisting police and possessing Class A drugs.
The following year he was back in court for drugs offences and in September of that year he was jailed for four years for dealing crack cocaine and heroin.
MAHMOUD JABER'S CONVICTIONS AND TIMETABLE OF APPEAL
- February 5, 2003: Convicted at Hyndburn Magistrates' Court of resisting police and using a vehicle with no test certificate. Fined £100 with £55 costs.
- May 1, 2003: Convicted at Hyndburn Magistrates' Court of possessing Class A controlled drugs. Fined £100 with costs of £100.
- March 24, 2004: Convicted at Hyndburn Magistrates' Court of possession of Class B controlled drugs. Fined £100 and costs of £65.
- September 16, 2004: Convicted at Burnley Crown Court of possessing crack and heroin. Jailed for four years.
- April 26, 2006: Jaber notified of his liability to deportation. Notice served May 11, 2007.
- May 17, 2007: Jaber lodges appeal against deportation and wins on September 5 that year.
- December 17, 2008: Convicted at Blackburn Magistrates' Court of possessing cannabis. Conditionally discharged for twelve months and pay costs of £360.
- December 19, 2008: Convicted at Blackburn Magistrates' Court of possessing cocaine and breach of conditional discharge. Given a community order with a curfew requirement and four weeks electronic tagging and costs of £60.
- November 19, 2010: Convicted at Burnley Crown Court of three counts of possession heroin and crack cocaine with intent to supply and being concerned in producing crack. Jailed for six years.
- January 17, 2011: Jaber warned he would be deported but appeals under Human Rights Act.
- January 14, 2013: Convicted at Preston Crown Court of money laundering and jailed for 21 months' imprisonment consecutive to six years.
- October 13, 2013: Jaber appeals deportation before immigration tribunal at Bradford Magistrates' Court but loses.
- March 6, 2014: Jaber appeals panel's decision at Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber).
- April 3, 2014: Jaber fails and is ordered to be deported.
In April 2006, Jaber was told he would be deported but in May the following year he lodged an appeal under Article Eight and won the right to stay.
In December 2008, he was repeatedly brought into court where he was convicted of possessing cannabis, cocaine and breaching court orders.
Then at Burnley Crown Court in October 2010, Jaber was convicted of intent to supply heroin and crack cocaine and manufacturing crack was jailed for six years.
The court heard Jaber had turned an empty flat into a drugs factory and police recovered heroin and crack cocaine worth almost £25,000.
Detectives said his commercial dealing on ‘a significant scale’ and was said to be close to the importation of drugs.
Jaber kept £4,000 in cash at his home and officers found a receipt for a £6,000 Breitling watch.
He was also was driving around in a £60,000 BMW M3.
At the time, Jaber claimed he had spent the first eight years of his life in a refugee camp on the Palestinian West Bank.
He said his experiences in the camp were ‘horrific’ and he was so ‘scarred’ by what he saw he experimented with cannabis when he was 13 - five years after he arrived in the UK.
Jaber claimed his drug use increased to cocaine due to ‘family issues’ and intially claimed all the drugs found at the flat were for his own use.
In 2011, Jaber was warned he faced deportation yet in 2012 but he again claimed it would result in a ‘breach of his human rights.’
Whilst his appeal was in the pipeline, in 2013 he was convicted of money laundering and jailed for an extra 21 months after Preston Crown Court was told he used drugs money to buy an Audi Quattro S5 for £44,000.
Later that year he was ordered to pay back £37,147.06 as proceeds of crime. The appeal came to a tribunal in Bradford, West Yorks, on October last year an immigration panel ordered he be deported saying removal would ‘not be disproportionate.’
The panel concluded his offending was ‘simply too serious to outweigh his claims to remain in the United Kingdom because of his history.’
The panel said his length of time in the UK was ‘outweighed by the public interest in keeping society safe from a perennial offender who they believed in all likelihood would be a serious threat to individuals.’
But Jaber appealed to the Upper Immigration Tribunal in Manchester and used Human Rights laws to argue he would be at ‘risk of harm’ if he was returned to Palestine.
His lawyer Carla Rawlinson claimed Jaber's safety could be in jeopardy because his uncle had been killed by Israeli forces during militia insurgency in 1989.
Abroad: Jaber claimed he was 'emotionally scarred into drug taking' by his experiences after being born in a refugee camp in the Palestinian West Bank. A file image of the Palestinian refugee camp of Kalandia is seen
She said Jaber would have to pass through an Israeli checkpoint and the checkpoints into Palestine are controlled by the Israeli occupying forces.
She claimed at best, he would be turned away by the Israelis and at worst he would be at risk of harm because of his ‘history’ and the history of his uncle.
'I am satisfied, given this appellant's appalling history, that the appeal fails'
Judge Richard Chalkley
She said the length of time Jaber had been away from Palestine in itself, would cause him to be at risk of enquiry by the Israeli authorities, who would want to know why he had been out of Palestine for 20 years.
But rejecting the appeal on April 3, Judge Richard Chalkley said: ‘I am satisfied, given this appellant's appalling history, that the appeal fails. The appellant has not raised an asylum claim.
‘He had not raised an Article 3 claim and given that he was represented throughout, if there was a serious possibility that on his return he would be at risk, then I have no doubt whatsoever that it would have been raised as an asylum claim or an Article 3 claim.
‘I find that there are no errs of law in this determination, which I uphold.’
HOW 200 OFFENDERS PREVENTED THEIR DEPORTATION BY CITING ARTICLE 8
Last year, 200 offenders – including rapists and muggers – successfully challenged their removal by citing Article 8 of Labour’s Human Rights Act.
A Somali rapist, who held a knife to a pregnant woman’s throat as he assaulted her, is among the many criminals who cannot be deported from Britain because of rules on a right to family life.
Mustafa Abdullahi (right), 31, was jailed for ten years in 2007 after he threatened to kill his ‘vulnerable’ victim and repeatedly raped her in her own home.
He was set to be deported on release and Home Office lawyers warned immigration judges of his dangerous nature and a continued lack of respect for the law.
But last December he was deemed to have a right to a family life under Article 8 and released. Abdullahi does not have any children or a wife in Britain, but his mother and siblings live here.
Separately, last August it was revealed Sanel Sahbaz, a foreign criminal jailed for various violent attacks, had successfully argued against deportation because it would violate his human rights.
Sahbaz, 30, a Bosnian who now lives in Hertford, came to Britain as a child in 1993. Since 2005 he has committed a string of offences including common assault, handling stolen goods, theft, public order offences and assaulting police.
He qualified for automatic deportation after he was jailed for four years, and the Home Office told him he would be sent home. But he was told he can stay indefinitely after he brought a legal challenge under Article 8.
His lawyers argued that if he was sent back to Bosnia it would separate him from his parents, brother and cousin, who are also in Britain, which would breach his rights.
Learco Chindamo was jailed indefinitely for knifing to death headmaster Philip Lawrence, a father of four, 18 years ago outside St George's Roman Catholic School in Maida Vale, west London, in 1995. The teacher went to help a 13-year-old pupil who was being assaulted.
The former gang member was ordered to serve at least 12 years, but released in July 2010 after claiming he was a reformed character.
The Government was prevented from deporting Chindamo to Italy, where he lived as a child, after his lawyers argued it would breach his human right to a family life.
He was freed and allowed to live in Britain, but returned to jail only months later for breaching the terms of his parole. He has remained in prison since but last week the Parole Board approved his release once again.
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