by Hundreds of foreign criminals convicted of murder, rape and child sexual abuse have been allowed into Britain from abroad, police figures show.
The violent foreign offenders are taking advantage of “weaknesses” in the UK’s visa system which enable them to enter the country despite post-Brexit rules which allow the Government to ban any overseas criminals who are in prison for more than a year.
They only have to declare that they have not committed any serious crime to get a visa to enter Britain – and are only exposed if they get into trouble with the police once in the UK.
British police officers and law enforcement agencies can then check the criminal background of an arrested foreign suspect through the UK’s ACRO criminal records office requesting information from officials in the person’s home country.
Data from ACRO, released under freedom of information (FOI) laws, shows that checks with officials in Romania have turned up more than 700 cases over the past three years where a UK suspect has a criminal record for murder or manslaughter , rape. or child sexual offence.
The Freedom of Information request revealed that officers working in ACRO have carried out 317,757 computerized cross-border criminal record checks on foreign nationals arrested over the past three years.
Based on a sample of five nationalities, these checks revealed details of 524 cases where a suspect had been convicted abroad of murder or manslaughter, 441 cases of a person with a rape conviction abroad and 592 incidents of child sex offenses abroad .
In one of the most high-profile cases, Michael Podlaszczyk, 33, arrived in the UK despite serving 12 years in prison for killing a man in a drunken rage in his native Poland. His conviction did not come to light until he was jailed for life for the rape and robbery of a woman he attacked in a park in Leicester.
Another high-profile case was that of Vytautas Jokubauskas, 59, who murdered his partner before dismembering him and stuffing his torso into a suitcase. Jokubauskas, who lived in Peterborough, strangled his girlfriend Ramute Butkiene, 42, with a dressing gown cord before dismembering her body.
It emerged at the end of his trial, where he was convicted of her murder, that in 1992 he was imprisoned in Lithuania for a fight in which he killed a man.
The issue was further highlighted in 2015 when Lithuanian Raimondas Jakstas, 26, was jailed for assaulting his neighbor in Boston, Lincolnshire. Jakstas came to the UK after being released from prison in Lithuania where he served five years of a nine-year sentence for manslaughter.
Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said the Government should consider whether the introduction of a US-style electronic travel authorization (ETA) system for travelers to the UK next year could provide an opportunity for a new criminal background check system to establish. “I would support him,” he said.
Meanwhile, he said: “It is vital that where foreign nationals are found to have committed serious offenses here or elsewhere that they return quickly to their country of origin. We cannot know foreign criminals roaming our streets.”
Under ETA, travelers to the UK will have to enter biographical, biometric and contact details and answer questions about their plans before being automatically checked against watchlists and criminal databases.
However, even ETA only requires self-declaration of criminality and checks are only carried out against UK databases and Interpol watch lists for terrorists and other serious international criminals. Officers suspected of travelers would be required to have their criminal background checked through ACRO before they arrive.
A former senior Border Force and immigration officer told the Sunday Telegraph: “It’s a weakness in the current system but it’s difficult because individual countries’ criminal record databases are not networked. Even if they were to be, it raises a big privacy issue.”
Officials are understood to have considered tougher visa requirements when the post-Brexit rules on criminal convictions were introduced. This included the possibility of requiring travelers to the UK to obtain a police certificate declaring they had no criminal record before obtaining a visa.
“It’s difficult because it would end the visa system in places like India and Pakistan because it would take so long to give those certificates. And then there would be forgery,” said the former official.
Among those banned from the UK are well-known figures with convictions such as boxer Mike Tyson, who was banned due to his rape conviction, and rapper Snoop Dogg for a previous case of violent disorder .
Most prosperous countries
ACRO data obtained by The Telegraph shows that the top three nations for murder or manslaughter in the last three years are Romania (307 cases), Lithuania (93) and Poland (83). In terms of rape, they were Romania (235), Poland (121) and Lithuania (41). In terms of child sex offences, they were Romania (216), Poland (203) and the Czech Republic (77).
A Home Office spokesman said: “Those applying for a visa to come to the UK are required to declare any criminal convictions and are subject to checks against police databases, watch lists and UK immigration databases. They may be refused if they have a criminal conviction, if they have a history of serious or persistent convictions or if they have failed to declare convictions.
“Our police also carry out routine checks for foreign criminal convictions on foreign nationals who are arrested, and where serious convictions are found, individuals are referred to Immigration Enforcement for deportation consideration.”
A spokesperson for ACRO said: “The UK has well-established mechanisms for exchanging information on criminal records with other countries. This helps UK police carry out criminal investigations and protect communities.”
