A failed asylum seeker who killed a former Royal Marines commando in a hit-and-run crash has escaped deportation because his crime is not considered serious enough by the Home Office. Jean Renee Mukadi was jailed for four months after fatally injuring Simon Lawrence while driving without a licence or insurance. Despite having his asylum claim rejected three times previously, Mukadi, 33, cannot be sent back to his native Democratic Republic of Congo because his sentence fell short of the minimum term that would qualify for automatic deportation. Foreign offenders can only be kicked out of the country if they have been jailed for at least 12 months or if they have been convicted of serious gun or drug crimes. The loophole means that Mukadi can remain in Britain while he fights a lengthy appeal against the decision to deny him asylum.
The Tories claim that about 3,000 foreign convicts are released back into society each year despite a pledge by Gordon Brown to deport all foreign lawbreakers. Within weeks of becoming prime minister, Brown said: “If you commit a crime, you will be deported. You play by the rules or you face the consequences.”
Alison Roberts, Lawrence’s sister, was so upset by the government’s refusal to consider Mukadi for deportation that she asked her MP, James Arbuthnot, to write to ministers seeking an explanation. Meg Hillier, a Home Office minister, replied: “It appears that Mr Mukadi does not meet the criteria to be considered for deportation. “I recognise that this may not be the information that Ms Roberts wishes to hear. However, I am afraid that the UK Border Agency can only deport foreign national offenders in line with published policy and legal powers.”
Last night Roberts, a former police officer, said: “This is ridiculous. Mukadi has had his asylum claim refused three times and in court it was said he had failed to get a driving licence seven times. So, by any estimation, he should not have been on the road. “He showed what kind of a person he was when he drove off after killing Simon because he didn’t want to endanger his own interests. And yet apparently he cannot be deported.”
Lawrence, 55, served with the Royal Marines during the 1970s, including two tours of duty in Northern Ireland and a period on board the aircraft carrier Hermes alongside the Prince of Wales. He was also a motorbike enthusiast and became a self-employed builder after leaving the armed forces. Lawrence was on his motorbike in June last year when he was struck by Mukadi’s Toyota car in Harefield, west London. He suffered severe neck and head injuries that killed him instantly.
Mukadi drove off, but was traced and arrested several days later. He told police that he had failed to stop because he did not want to endanger a pending asylum appeal, and said he had not realised that he had hit a person. At Uxbridge magistrates’ court Mukadi admitted charges of leaving the scene of an accident, driving without a licence and having no insurance. He was seen dabbing his eyes with a towel at the court hearing last October. Mukadi has already served more than half his sentence and it remains unclear this weekend whether he has been freed.
A woman at a house in Haringey, north London, which was supplied to magistrates as Mukadi’s home address, said she had never heard of him.
A spokesman for the UK Border Agency said: “We will not tolerate those that come here and break our rules. Last year we exceeded the tough target set by government to remove 5,000 foreign lawbreakers. We are targeting the most harmful [offenders] first.” Whitehall sources said that attempts to remove Mukadi from Britain via the asylum process were being pursued.
January 19, 2009 at 6:47 pm
This case is appalling – the judge who heard the case was bound in terms of sentencing by government guidelines; guidelines designed to keep the prison population down… because, although prison building was required when labour came to power – they’ve never addressed the situation. Criminal.
January 21, 2009 at 11:40 pm
Simon was a friend of mine having met him through the motorcycle club.
I met his family at his funeral and have since become close friends. I attended the court hearing. We had to listen to an interpreter as Mr Mukadi could not speak Enlish and stood sobbing into something that looked like a scarf out of Doctor who and going on about how hard done by he would be if he had to go to prison as he had a child and his parnter was expecting again, also stating he was supported by the church financially. It was all about him him and him and no mention of the devastation and heartache and grief it had caused the family. If he were a man of God he would not have left our mate to die in the road.
No compensation for his sister and elderly mother, yet today I hear he is a free man again after serving such a short sentence and can pick up his life where he left off, unlike the Roberts. Simon was the life and sole of our bike club and we miss him so much. We cannot believe the injustice that has been done, yet this is just one of many. How much longer can this be allowed to carry on and how many more lives destroyed.